New member: Wigan Athletic Community Trust

New member: Wigan Athletic Community Trust

The Wigan Athletic Community Trust has joined EFDN as a new member. The charity organisation works closely together with English Football League One side Wigan Athletic FC in order to improve health, enhance life chances and create stronger, safer communities in the Wigan area. By joining EFDN they hope to share ideas, challenges and best practices with like-minded football club community organisations from across Europe.

On the pitch, Wigan Athletic is known for their sensational FA Cup win in 2013 when they surprised Manchester City FC in the Final at Wembley. However, at the end of that season, the club was relegated out of the Premier League after an eight years-long spell in the top tier of English football. They are currently striving for promotion into the Championship.

The Trust runs programmes focused on three areas: Schools, Community Development and Training and Skills, Wigan Athletic Community Trust aims to:

• Increase participation in sport across all levels of society – particularly those from underrepresented groups
• Encourage young people and families to lead healthier and more active lifestyles.
• Improve the skills and aspirations and achievements of young people.
• Contribute towards increased community cohesion by improving the quality of life for young people and families.

One of their CSR Programmes is named The Supporters Project and was launched in October 2021. It supports different age groups like people over the age of 55 to reduce their social isolation but also aims to raise the aspirations of young people in secondary schools in the wake of the COVID 19. Apart from that, the project provides financial support to grassroots junior football clubs in the Wigan area.

Another programme, Pathway 2 Participation: started in 2016 and focuses on young people to improve their confidence, mental and physical health and social action. It achieves this through a combination of group work and activities as well as one to one support.

Wigan Athletic Community Trust wants to contribute to the EFDN network by being open and honest with other clubs about their successes, how they do things and also on what they can improve and how to improve.

Hubert Rovers, CEO of EFDN: ‘We are very pleased that the Wigan Athletic Community Trust joins EFDN and helps to expand the network in the United Kingdom. English clubs deliver many excellent programmes and play an important role in their community. We are looking forward to our cooperation and to sharing our mutual experiences in CSR and ESG.’