The EFL Day of Action is about all 72 EFL Clubs and their Community Trusts uniting to express the support and the impact football can have in the local community.
At Crawley Town Community Foundation we hosted a full day of fun and appreciation for the community, going to a range of different sessions we run for different parts of the community.
The day began by taking Crawley Town’s feisty mascot, Reggie the Red Devil, to Thomas Bennet Community College to meet up with our National Citizen Service (NCS) team where they were hosting a Food 4 Lyf Enterprise Challenge (a bespoke enterprise task based all things business, whilst also incorporating the essence of social action through the story that comes with the challenge) for the Year 8 students.
During the Food4Lyf task, each group is asked to recreate as many food packages as possible in order to feed the community of Crawley. They are given a £40 budget and, as a team, must decide how they are going to spend their money in the NCS Shop Of Resources.
The young people loved meeting the Red Devil whilst learning some valuable skills, which include:
· Decision making
· Leadership Team
· Work Initiative and instinct
· Negotiation
· Creativity
· Reflection
Our next stop for our EFL Day of Action was our Crawley Town Flyers who got the opportunity to meet and play with first-team players, Ibrahim Meite and Josh Doherty.
Ibrahim and Josh joined in with the warm-ups, followed by matches. This gave the participants the opportunity to play alongside players whom they idolise, and perhaps learn some new skills from them.
At the end of the session the participants were also gifted tickets to watch Crawley Town play against Lincoln City, which was definitely a highlight for the participants.
Our next community event was Langley Green Kicks, hosted by the Langley Green Adventure Playground. The Premier League Kicks programme is run for young people aged 9 to 19 and gives them the opportunity to play football while making new friends.
At this sessions our coaches supported them through matches, which all the participants loved. Followed by a ticket giveaway surprise, one participant was so excited to be given the opportunity to see his first real match at the Crawley Town stadium. It’s amazing when you see reactions like that to the effort the coaches put in to make each of our sessions special for our participants.
Another session which we surprised with a ticket giveaway, was U12s Development Centre at the Crawley Town stadium. They have been working hard all season and a part of EFL Day of Action we decided to visit to celebrate their work as a squad.
The final event we went along to show extra support on was, Crawley Town Flyers, this session is hosted in the evening by the K2 Leisure Centre where one of our passionate coaches volunteers to help coach alongside the Sussex Disability League coaches.
This is a fantastic session which all the participants really enjoy, and to show them how much their hard work matters, we gifted them with tickets to attend the Crawley Town home fixture.
Overall it was a very successful EFL Day of Action. We value our participants across the community and we believe in inclusion across all ages, mental health issues and disabilities because everyone matters in a football community.
To find out more about our sessions go to our website: https://www.ctcommunityfoundation.com/
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