Southampton’s Saints As One Community Impact
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Southampton Football Club and Saints Foundation launched the Saints As One campaign, an outreach and engagement project to support their communities.
Over the past four months, they have launched initiatives to help those that were isolated and vulnerable, including Saints Foundation delivering over 13,000 meals and 2,000 prescriptions to those most in need across the city.
They also delivered a range of resources and content to help keep their fans active, entertained and connected during this challenging time, with club staff making over 4,000 calls to Season Ticket holders over 65.
The club and Saints Foundation partnered with FareShare Southern Central, Hampshire’s biggest charity for fighting hunger and food waste, with staff volunteering 1,700 hours of their time to cook and distribute 13,000 meals in the local area.
On top of this, more than 10,000 units of food and drink were donated by the club before being delivered by Saints Foundation to Solent NHS Trust’s four hospitals across the city. Former Saints defender Maya Yoshida also personally donated 10,000 face masks to the club to ensure staff could work safely.
Saints Foundation joined forces with Southampton City Council and the city’s NHS Clinical Commissioning Group, with staff volunteering to run a Prescription Delivery Service to aid those most vulnerable in their community, making 2,000 deliveries from 40 different pharmacies.
This scheme will be handed over to SO:Linked, a community networking service, who will add it to their existing community helpline to keep supporting their city during this difficult time.
There was a royal visit for Saints Foundation when HRH The Countess of Wessex met volunteers in June, delivering medication as part of the Prescription Delivery Service and helping out at the FareShare Southern Central food distribution centre in Totton.
Saints Foundation’s ambassadors also lent a hand with Matt Le Tissier also volunteering at Fareshare, Kenzie Benali hosting a virtual Bake Off, and Francis Benali raising funds for NHS Charities and Saints Foundation by running a full marathon on a treadmill in his back garden.
They have been staying connected to their fans and the local community with Saints Foundation making more than 5,000 calls to keep in touch with their participants, a total of over 40,000 minutes of contact, and club staff checking in with over 4,000 Season Ticket holders over the age of 65.
The club delved into the archives to bring fans Saints Rewind, a series of classic matches from Saints’ past which were seen by over 1.3 million people, and used technology to create engaging videos with the club’s partners, including The Isolate Inn with Kingfisher and Monster’s HydroSport Hotseat, driving over 10 million impressions with their partner-led content.
Saints Foundation provided a range of online resources for their participants, including exercise videos to keep fit at home, recipes from the club’s chefs, and an online Prince’s Trust qualification run by their Community Champions League programme which 125 secondary school students took part in.
The Foundation also ran free football schools for children of key workers in Southampton, providing more than 1,800 hours of childcare for those that needed it most.
Saints Foundation’s commitment to supporting the local community will continue throughout August as they launch their Community Hub.
Taking place for four weeks, Bitterne Park Secondary School and Oasis Academy Lord’s Hill will host sessions from all areas of the Foundation’s work, including Saints4Sport, SaintsAbility and Senior Saints, as well as providing fun and interactive family-based sessions for other members of the community, alongside a healthy meal.
Saints As One has allowed Southampton Football Club and Saints Foundation to connect with and support their community during these challenging months and will continue to help those most in need over the months ahead.
Supporting Saints Foundation’s work in the community has never been more vital. Through these difficult times, they have pulled together for their city and they want to push on with your help.
Find out how you can help support the work of Saints Foundation here.
