Blackpool FC Community Trust FC’s CEO Ashley Hackett sat down with Communications Officer Manvir Rai and discussed some of the highlights of 2016.
Highlights of 2016?
“We’ve had some fantastic achievements this year. Our education results have been amazing. In our last academic year, we had 100% of students passing, with 94% achieving their target grade and 86% of students exceeding their target grade. 
The amount of different disability teams to get involved with us, in competitive games is brilliant. Our inclusion teams have won numerous trophies. It’s a lovely feature to win things.
The Trust’s Walking Football team won the regional and national Walking Football tournaments – a fantastic achievement as numerous teams entered the national tournament. The team were runners up in 2015, so it was great for them to have the courage to come back and go one better.
Our National Citizen Programme (NCS) has been a great success this year. I’m over the moon to have 100% of NCS participants attend our Autumn NCS – that’s 90 participants. We have the best attendance for NCS participants in the North West region from football clubs. 
Our Fit2Go festival received record numbers of participants and our Family Fun Day in May had over 1100 people attend – I’m delighted with the support.
Both our Futsal A and B teams are top of the North West Development League with A team occupying 1st and B team sitting in 2nd place.
Within our team, we have had some excellent news with Enterprise Officer Reading and Literacy Officer, Jack Shields having a baby boy called Eddie and our Education Officer Caroline Bailey expecting a girl in 2017. We’ve had a lot of new starters at the Trust this year and they’ve had a huge impact on the team and the delivery.”
What does 2017 have in store for Blackpool FC Community Trust?
“We are going to have a lot of developments to further increase the opportunities for the local community. Opportunities coming from health, community inclusion, education and physical activity. Our facilities are consistently improving as is our brand awareness. We are looking forward to 2017.
On a personal note, I’m very proud of the team. It’s brilliant to have a team who have the same focus and passion to change people’s lives. I want to say a huge thank you to the team, the trustees and our partners – who help us do what we do”
