This week is Great British Week of Sport which aims to inspire the nation to celebrate the power of sport, focusing on the positive effect it has on our mental, physical and social well-being. We know that physical activity has helped the UK stay physically and mentally strong through coronavirus lockdown restrictions.
During Lock Down we continued to support our community by; taking activities online and running virtual sessions, delivering over 520 food parcels and making over 640 welfare calls to Blackpool residents as well as maintaining delivery where possible.
It’s great to hear how the efforts had a positive impact on local residents. Jack is one of our elderly residents, who was socially isolated. When asked about the volunteer’s visits, he said, “I love you visiting me, I look forward to seeing you at my door. You have kept me going recently.”
We were also able to support schools where possible. Mrs Wygladala, Head Teacher from St Kentigern’s Catholic Primary School said,
“The Community Trust were there to support us and deliver top quality sports to different groups of children. They were very flexible and adapted constantly to the differing needs of the groups they worked with. I am very grateful as the support had a big impact on getting the pupils active and making them feel better about themselves”.
We are now able to ‘open up’ more and offer more face to face sessions as well as continuing with the virtual ones too. We have recently welcomed our Blackpool FC Sports College students back to full time education and a new cohort of Trainees have started the Traineeship. Fit Blackpool has also recommenced with local people taking part in regular exercise and sessions discussing healthy lifestyles in addition to a number of other provisions too.
Andy Smith who attended our Get Set To Go, a free football session to support positive mental health, before lockdown said,
“I’m so glad that Get Set To Go is back on, I’ve not been feeling myself through lockdown and with it up and running again I can focus on playing footy again instead of feeling low”.
Sport really does have a huge impact on our local community and we are proud to be able to support you through numerous opportunities.
For more information on Blackpool FC Community Trust please; call: 01253 348 691 or follow BFCCT on social media.
