This Saturday's fixture versus Northampton will play host to Football In The Community's second Community Matchday after the success of last year’s 25th Anniversary Celebration.
This is a time for us to share the work and accomplishments that the charity has achieved over the last year. It has been another award-winning year for FITC, having recently received the Nottingham Sports Awards Community Award 2015, in addition to Activity Manager Ian Richardson being recognised by the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, as an unsung Mental Health Hero.
FITC has distributed over a thousand free tickets for the game amongst local schools, football clubs and community groups. This gives young people the opportunity to attend their first professional match, adding to the atmosphere on the day.
175 VIP guests will be hosted in one of the Suites at Meadow Lane and will find out more about FITC’s recent work, meet the staff behind the work and enjoy the match. FITC will use the event as the launch of their “Actions Speak” magazine-style annual report.
Notts County FC’s first-team players will sport: “I Support Notts County FITC” t-shirts during their warm up, which will be signed by players and raffled off afterwards to raise funding. FITC will have: “I Support Notts County FITC” wristbands around the stadium and collect donations from fans wishing to contribute towards FITC’s community work. Proceeds will go towards sustaining the women’s mental health project “Right Mind”, which has been hugely successful in its first year and life changing for those involved.
The charity have introduced several new projects in the last year: including Right Mind, CARE (Cancer And Rehabilitation Exercise programme for men and women), Move and Learn (educating children on healthy eating and exercise), Premier League School Sports (encouraging primary school children to play football) and Team Nottingham vs Childhood Obesity (the winning project from ITV’s People’s Millions Vote).
Steve Hill, Community Director says: “Our annual Community Day is a great opportunity to invite the local community to a Notts County FC match and say thank you to partners and funders for their support. This year, we are launching a new fundraising strategy, which involves working more with businesses and the public to raise funding for our much-needed projects. As a result of the Community Day, we hope to raise FITC’s profile further and generate more income, which will help us continue to make more of a difference across Nottingham.”