BUILDING healthier, happier and stronger communities is the three-year mission of Burton Albion’s charity arm.
Burton Albion Community Trust has today unveiled its strategy for 2021-24 outlining ambitious targets to improve lives as we recover from the impact of the pandemic.
The Healthier, Happier, Stronger Communities strategy was officially launched at The Pirelli Stadium.
BACT Head of Community Matt Hancock said: “We continue to be a unique organisation with fantastic facilities, brilliant people and life changing projects. I can’t wait to see what the future holds.”
The three-year plan builds on the trust’s previous Inspiring Our Communities strategy and is even more ambitious as the charity goes into its second decade.
It covers all aspects of the trust’s work including health and wellbeing; community engagement, education and employability and school sport and comes after the life-saving work BACT has done in its pandemic response, including running Burton Albion’s Vaccination Centre.
Areas targeted for work include:
Community engagement: Targeted interventions in the community; working with young people to empower them to make the right decisions. Projects such as No Room for Racism, knife crime, working with Burton Boxing Club; holiday activities and food provision.
Health and wellbeing: Improving physical and mental health across all age groups; programmes on cancer awareness, Active Recovery, obesity, diet and long-term health issues such as high cholesterol levels; new research into and a project to tackle long Covid.
Education and employability: Helping the people furthest from the job market including a new group of over 50s who have lost jobs due to Covid; taking employability into schools; working with graduates struggling to get into their chosen careers; alternative education provisions.
School sport: Not just about PE but focussing on the whole pupil; encouraging them to be the best they can be, helping them see the importance of English and maths, giving them confidence and resilience.
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Matt Hancock added: “We need everyone’s support to take this all forward. Over the last 18 months it has been very difficult, but it has given us time to reflect on who we are and what we want to deliver. We have never been prouder of being part of Burton Albion and how the football club led from the front and stood up when the community most needed it.
“As a football family we have been doing that for the last 10 years but never more so than in the current time. We are proud of what we have done but are even more excited about what we are going to achieve. Our focus is on being the best in everything we do and there are gaps in our society and community we believe we can fill.”
Burton Albion Chairman Ben Robinson said: “The trust has inspirational and committed leaders, a dedicated and enthusiast workforce and will always have the full support of the football club. BACT has never been more needed and is ready as ever to deliver on all promises. I can’t wait to see what we can achieve together over the coming years.”
John Widdowson, BACT Community and Partnership Manager, said: “Over the past 10 years our most valuable asset and resource has been the passionate, determined staff and volunteers who have made such a huge difference. We are confident over the next 10, 15, 20 years our workforce will continue to make a lasting impact on the communities and people involved in the work we do.”
BACT Chairman John Jackson thanked all the trust’s sponsors, funders, partner organisations, staff and volunteers who make it all possible with BACT stressing the importance of the brand of the football club and in the way the majority of programmes are delivered with partners.
He said: “I place on record the thanks of the trustees to Burton Albion FC, all of our funders and of course our excellent staff for their continuing support and encouragement without which we would be unable to deliver much-need high quality programmes for the benefit of the community.”