LFC foundation
Unity Is Strength
Within a day of Premier League football being suspended last month, a £40,000 donation was made to Fans Supporting Foodbanks. It came after the Reds' first-team squad and LFC Foundation immediately committed to jointly donating £10,000 per game for the four remaining Premier League fixtures scheduled to be played at Anfield in 2019/20.
The donation was made to ensure the North Liverpool Foodbank can continue to function while the Unity Is Strength Emergency Foodbank Appeal – allowing the opportunity to support the Trussell Trust Foodbank network – was also launched. The Club will donate 100% of funds raised directly to the Trussell Trust.
In a bid to reduce social isolation amongst older and vulnerable neighbours in the north Liverpool and Kirkby communities, the Club’s Red Neighbours, LFC Foundation and Fan Experience teams have been phoning people to have a virtual cuppa with them. The weekly calls are part of a new LFC Connect initiative to provide support by helping people stay connected.
LFC Foundation has also added a series of new physical activity and educational content on its social media platforms to engage youngsters and their families at home. Matt Parish, Head of LFC Foundation, believes it is vital that the Club does all it can to help during this challenging time.
“I think if we’re not relevant and present and visible and active in a time like this… if we can’t be there for our participants and our fans and our community now, when can we be?” he said.
“The Foundation has got two parts: the fundraising element – the obvious part of that which most supporters will be aware of is the Legends game – and the money we generate from that activity is used either to make donations to and support other local charities or to fund some of our other activities in the community.
“The first thing that kicked in when the Premier League made the decision that the league was put on hold on Friday March 13 was that we acted alongside the players. We made the decision quickly on Saturday March 14 to make a £20,000 donation to the North Liverpool Foodbank, which was matched by the players so in effect we as a club made a £40,000 donation which basically underpinned what they would have collected at the four remaining Liverpool home games this season.
“Because 25% of their food donations come from Liverpool games, we thought it was important to try to plug that gap and I think they’ve been open in saying that the £40,000 more than plugged that. I think the reality is that the food crisis situation is going to be even more extreme, unfortunately, over the next weeks and months, so that was the first part.
“Then we moved to, given that our regular activities have stopped, how we continue that support. That’s been about trying to work out how we can continue to support foodbanks in terms of ongoing fundraising, so we launched the Unity is Strength Emergency Foodbank Appeal.
“The other area we are looking at, which has been led by the Foundation and by Red Neighbours and the LFC Fan Connect team as well, is the connection programme. Initially that’s about us offering phone conversations to participants, vulnerable, isolated participants, from our programmes.
“First and foremost the older participants that attend the Red Neighbours activity sessions, or the Monday lunch club, the walking football, walking netball, chair-based yoga and the care homes we link in with. For some of them, if they come to one of those events, that might be one of the only physical contacts they have in a week on a regular basis so it’s about keeping that contact going. Obviously we’re not able to see them face to face, but just over the phone.
The third area has been putting as much content and activities as possible online for our participants. Before the more stringent restrictions came in we filmed some activities that people can do in ones and twos to keep them physically active. That’s ongoing and our staff have now been making videos at home which we will get out online for our participants.
“Our Premier League programmes such as Primary Stars, there is online learning and lessons on there, so we’ve been pumping out activities every day, but what we’re trying to do is make sure they’re not just activities for one group.
“At the Foundation our usual focus is mainly on children and young people, and Red Neighbours is more about socially isolated and older people across Anfield and Kirkby. So we’ve sort of come together as the club’s community arms and hopefully we are offering something so all of our regular participants can still stay engaged during this time when we can’t actually physically be with them.”
The LFC Foundation's fantastic work is a reminder that Unity Is Strength during these difficult times and you can keep up-to-date with their latest initiatives here.
