Rotherham United joined clubs across the country in recognising the fantastic work that is carried out within our local area by our Community Trust and the many amazing volunteers who operate within in year-round.
The club nominated nine Community Champions for their selfless and unwavering commitment to work in Rotherham and beyond with those same individuals invited to our Sky Bet Championship fixture with Stoke City as guests in our corporate hospitality suites.
Alongside the celebrations of those Community Champions, there were two very special fixtures which took place on the pitch at half time involving some local girls’ teams and our Ability Counts programme.
Rotherham United's Community Champions before the half time presentation at AESSEAL New York Stadium on Saturday
Local community heroes were celebrated up and down the country from Friday 12th January – and will continue to be until to Saturday 20th January - as the EFL, EFL Trust, 72 EFL Clubs and their Community Club Organisations launch the first-ever EFL Community Weekends.
Across the period, Clubs, managers and players will mark the incredible work that community staff and volunteers deliver 365 days per year, while participants from community programmes will be honoured by special visits from players and matchday activities.
As part of matchday activations, fans will get the chance to hear from participants that have had their lives changed or even saved by their Club’s community work and find out more details about the range of projects and ways to get involved.
A host of these community heroes and projects that will be recognised include:
- Colchester United’s community champion, Lauren, who has recently been re-diagnosed with a brain tumour and is documenting her journey to raise awareness for other young people living with similar conditions
- Volunteers from Hull City’s Street Soccer Academy, a funded programme designed to build confidence and life-skills for local young people
- Programme leaders and participants from Ipswich Town’s ‘Senior Blues’ initiative, which provides an inclusive environment to tackle loneliness and promote active lifestyles
- Kai, a member of Cambridge United’s autism football project, and his mother Becca who have been awarded the Club’s Inspirational Family Award
- Derby County’s Alan Higgins, who has supported community sport at Oakwood for a number of years, including providing transport and subsidising fees for local children to play football
- Yakub Mohammed, who has been a part of Swindon Town FC’s Refugee football squad since its launch in 2022
- Rotherham’s community heroes who will be hosted in the Club’s Corporate Hospitality Lounge as a thank you for their continued efforts to the local community, including Jon Carnforth who was recently recognised in the King’s Honours list with an MBE for his services during the pandemic
Trevor Birch, CEO of the EFL, said: “Community remains a fundamental part of the EFL and its 72 Clubs’ identity, so we are delighted to launch the latest strand of activity in this area – the EFL Community Weekends. The work undertaken by Clubs has a hugely positive impact on the participants of the various programmes and the towns and cities where people live.
“Football continues to reach parts of local areas that others simply cannot and successfully addresses challenges linked to health, wellbeing, education and employment alongside helping to keep communities connected. We look forward to celebrating this incredible work in front of match-going fans over the coming two weekends across our network.”
Liam Scully, Chair of the EFL Trust, said: “Our Clubs and Club Community Organisations engage more than 840,000 people from EFL communities all year round. To be able to showcase the Club community work as a collective and acknowledge the work of participants and programme leaders, many of whom are volunteers, further highlights the unique ability of our network.”
The EFL Community Weekends build on the success of the recent EFL Week of Action in November – where the League and its Clubs shone a light on the significant impact Club community work has on towns and cities in England and Wales, valued at over £865m a season in the latest community impact report.
During the 2021/22 season, EFL Clubs deployed a workforce of almost 10,000 (of which over 4,000 are volunteers) to support community activities, delivering in-kind support of over £40m and more than 120,000 hours of free or subsidised usage of community facilities to benefit the lives of those living in the local community.
For more information on the EFL Community Weekends and the impact of EFL Club community work please visit www.efl.com