Today, the EFL marks its fifth Day of Action, where all 72 Clubs from its three divisions come together to demonstrate the impact that football has in positively changing people’s lives.
Rochdale AFC Community Trust are marking the occasion by publishing it’s 2020 Impact Report, showcasing the diverse range of projects delivered in the last financial year.
In total, over £400,000 was raised and invested into community programmes by the official charity of Rochdale AFC, with over 15,000 participants engaged in our programmes, ranging from schools coaching to Military Veterans football teams, welfare calls for over 50’s to a 5-a-side tournament for teams drawn from local mosques.
Twenty five different delivery partners supported projects from fourteen different funders, complementing the charities core trading activities.
"Last year was a difficult one for the charity, with the pandemic meaning that traditional delivery had to change to meet demand” commented Ryan Bradley, Community Director.
"Keith Hicks led the charity through the pandemic amiably, utilising covid recovery grants and other new income streams to keep the charity financially stable whilst also having a positive impact on the lives of many people locally, despite the the shutdown of the club’s football operation.
"The support of various partners and Rochdale AFC saw the major refurbishment of the Kick Pitch at the Crown Oil Arena, securing a base for community activities for many years to come.
"We are now starting the process of building for the future - our 2021 Strategy sets put our immediate future plans and we can’t wait to build on the excellent achievements of 2020.”
The importance of football Clubs to their local communities has never been clearer than in the last year, with millions of people across the nation relying on their local Club for food donations, mental health and wellbeing support and even transport to and from Covid-19 testing and vaccination sites.
Since March 2020, EFL Clubs have collectively distributed over 1.4 million food parcels, more than 179,000 items of PPE, 22,000 prescriptions and donated over 2,100 laptops and tablets to people facing technology poverty. Club staff and their players have had in excess of 527,000 outgoing and incoming conversations with fans and vulnerable people, and over 600 job opportunities are being delivered for young unemployed people.
You can read the 2020 Rochdale AFC Community Trust Impact Report here: https://rochdaleafccommunity.org/docs/RAFC-Impact-Report.pdf
You can find out more about the work of Rochdale AFC Community Trust, including the 2021 strategy, by visiting the website: https://rochdaleafccommunity.org/who-we-are/