Community Department Shows Huge Progress In 2015
From French lessons in a local school to a 90-mile bike ride to Cheltenham, 2015 has seen Shrewsbury Town in the Community make huge strides forward.
Shrewsbury Town in the Community is a development programme working with Shrewsbury Town Football Club, delivering to a range of different communities and age groups across Shropshire.
They are a registered charity (Charity No: 1125101) which strives to make a positive difference for all through sport and learning.
During the course of 2015, Shrewsbury Town players have averaged over 25 community appearances per month.
Ranging from Jermaine Grandison opening a charity shop, Jean Louis Akpa Akpro taking part in a French Lesson and Nathianial Knight-Percival and James Wesolowski completing a 90-mile bike ride to raise money for Hope House Children’s Hospice.
Within the 1,586 individual sessions delivered this year to date, we have seen 2,886 individual participants involved in the community programmes, with the oldest participant being 88 years old!
Our Soccer Schools have engaged with more than 2,500 children over seven different locations across Shropshire (Shrewsbury, Whitchurch, Wem, Ludlow, Lilleshall, Bridgnorth and Bishops Castle).
The Kinder + Kids Cup engaged over 30 local schools and had one of the largest increases in participating schools across the 72 football league clubs.
And 2015 has been our most successful year to date for the National Citizen Service (NCS) programme, with 79 young people engaged in the programme and an astonishing £4,161 raised for local charities to date. This total is still rising as our Autumn programme finishes later this month.
The increasing engagement with the community does not stop there, either. The Extra-Time club, a club for those of retirement age seeking social interaction and physical activities, has seen Shrewsbury Town in the community's engagement with elderly people increase by a massive 238%.
Part of Shrewsbury Town in the Community's mission is also to be 'a service that is seen to make a significant social contribution'. And by engaging with young people at our Street Games sessions, crime figures have decreased by 52.81% in Meole Brace since Street Games started in January.
Shrewsbury Town in the Community also provides opportunites to study and coach with Shrewsbury Town Football Club as part of the pathway to future jobs.
And our Foundation Degree students have delivered over 800 hours with the community in 2015.
2016 looks to be another exciting year for the Community Department as we embrace our first regional community hub in the south of the county.