Lockdown update from the Foundation
Chair of Trustees at the Bath City FC Foundation, Helen Donovan, has given us this update on what the Club’s charity is doing during lockdown. If you’d like to make a donation to help with their vital work in the community – perhaps giving a little of the money you might have spent watching a match – you can donate here https://www.justgiving.com/bathcityfcfoundation.
“Our team at the Foundation are adapting almost daily at the moment and our coaches are keen to support the people who need us to keep active and connected. We are itching to get on the pitch again!
One good thing to come out of this pandemic is a greater sense of appreciation for our project funders, the schools and organisations we work with and mostly the people we support. We miss them and they miss us when we are locked down.
We are able to support some groups, which is great! We are in St Michaels Junior School, Roundhill and Twerton Infants schools when they need us. We will be running activity sessions (multisports and football) for key workers children and helping staff with PE. We are waiting to hear if our holiday food and activity clubs at St Michaels will be on at half term.
We will continue to work with FareShareSW to ensure no child goes hungry in the school holidays. At New Year, we delivered food parcels to 80 local families with children on free school meals, who were introduced by the school they go to. Marcus Rashford has been pivotal in changing Government funding policy and raising awareness to this issue in recent months. Bath City FC Foundation has been supporting these children since 2019.
Bath Mind sessions are going on-line. Our after work football group will be going online for support and physical activities at home. Having regular contact with our coaches has been invaluable for this group and going online maintains the sense of belonging and connection.
Our new Reconnecting Twerton pilot is up and running. Following research from the University of Bath into loneliness in older people in Twerton during the pandemic, we received funding from the Lottery Community Fund for a six month pilot to engage people aged 65+ who are socially and digitally isolated. We would love to hear from you if you know anyone locally who would benefit from belonging to a small group and having a chat. Contact info@bathcityfoundation.org
Our work is made possible by donations from organisations such as the National League Trust, St John’s Foundation and Sport England but also from individuals who just want to help support the local community in Twerton, Whiteway and Southdown.”
