Searching for Success with Everton in the Community

The entry period for the 2014 Football Business Awards is over and as the judges pour over the submissions, treat entrants await the outcome with anticipation. With such an impressive standard of work going on off the pitch the competition for places on September’s shortlist is unsurprisingly high. For those lucky enough to be in contention for an award at November’s ceremony, buy how do they take the leap from contender to winner, order bringing home a prize?

Perhaps a good starting point is to look at Everton in the Community, whose double success in the ‘Best Club Community Scheme’ category stands as a reference for how to achieve success and build upon it year on year.

Established in 1988, Everton in the Community is the official charity of Everton Football Club, formed in response to the many social and economic challenges facing the region. Aiming to engage local people in positive and inspiring community-based activities, the charity has given hope to people whose futures seemed hopeless. Employing 91 full-time staff, 61 casual staff and 188 volunteers, the charity offers 41 programmes covering a range of social issues including health, employability, anti-social behaviour, crime, education, dementia, poverty, youth engagement and disability. Its involvement in such a diverse repertoire of aid projects caught the judges’ eye both in 2012 and 2013.

‘The charity and its projects have the full support of Everton Football Club within the local community,’ says Denise Barrett-Baxendale, CEO of Everton in the Community.  ‘Everyone from the first team manager and playing squad to the hundreds of volunteers that sign up to help their team week-in-week-out, it’s very much a club effort. 

‘We’re often recognized as one of the leading community schemes due to the quality and reach of our programmes and it is the diversity of the projects on offer that has meant that the charity has been at the forefront of social intervention across Merseyside for over 26 years.’ 

Everton in the Community manages one of the most successful disability sports programmes in the world. With physical activity increasingly seen as a powerful medium in tackling social issues, those driven and passionately promoted from football clubs are especially effective. 

The charity’s double success at the Football Business Awards is quite an achievement. To win once translates into a powerful market badge for victorious organizations, so winning twice sees the effect within the industry amplified twofold. 

‘Being recognised twice by the Football Business Awards has helped to maintain our position as not only one of the Premier League’s leading community schemes but one of the largest, most diverse and most dynamic schemes in world football,’ explains Denise. ‘Prestigious awards such as the FBAs enables Everton in the Community to continue to raise the awareness of their ground-breaking work on both an international and national stage.’

Those wishing to enter the Football Business Awards will now have to wait until 2015, but tables at 2014’s ceremony are now on sale for anyone looking to experience the action. For more information on attending the awards, visit www.footballbusinessawards.com.