The year just gone will no doubt be remembered as one of the most challenging in modern times, with individuals and organisations the world over facing unprecedented circumstances. At Fulham FC Foundation, while our mission remained constant, our practices were similarly upended by the Covid-19 pandemic, interrupting the delivery of so many of our programmes and necessitating swift and agile change to continue working with participants, partners and the wider Fulham FC Foundation community.
The year 2020 saw Fulham FC Foundation engage with 8,109 participants, both in-person, when restrictions allowed, and virtually through a variety of new online activities. These participants ranged from 3 years of age all the way through to 102(!), with 24% identifying as female and 8% as having a disability.
Virtual delivery of Foundation sessions became the norm overnight, with participants from our DisAbility, Football and Sport Participation, Player Pathways, Youth and Community, Health and Wellbeing, and Women and Girls programmes all engaged in online weekly activities.
These ranged from interactive quiz nights, question and answer sessions, fitness workouts and football skills delivered right to a participant’s living room or garden. A wide range of seminars and workshops proved popular for aspiring footballers to learn from experienced people within the game, as did a new monthly cooking class focused on building healthy eating habits. Our DisAbility participants alone took part in over 200 hours of online activity during the various lockdowns, while the Youth and Community team engaged over 100 young people in virtual Premier League Kicks sessions, supporting the physical wellbeing and providing social connectivity for some of our most vulnerable participants.
As our surrounding community adapted to new circumstances, so did we. The launch of Fulham Team Mates, a programme built to combat the most acute effects of lockdown, meant reaching out over the phone to more than 2,200 contacts through Fulham Football Club and 30+ referrals from local care networks. Whether signposting essential services, providing a range of activities or just offering an all too rare chance for a friendly chat Fulham Football Club and Foundation staff worked together in fighting against the unseen effects of the pandemic, strengthening bonds and building new friendships along the way.
Some statistical highlights of all these activities show Fulham FC Foundation engaged with 610 more participants across our Health and Wellbeing programmes compared with 2019 figures. 17 secondary schools students took part in a new Foundation Social Action initiative, highlighting important causes both local and global. Our coaches in primary schools spent on average over 22 hours with each student, a 21% increase year on year. Our female participation rate continues to grow across our soccer schools and skills clubs, up a further 4% in 2020, while our DisAbility activities attracted over 300 participants both in person and online.
Ultimately the numbers will only tell a part of the story that was 2020 for each and every person who engaged with Fulham FC Foundation this year. The phone calls, the video chats, the quizzes and, most of all, the hand sanitizer will live long in the memory, and in part will change the way we operate moving forward. What remains unchanged is our commitment to the community; of building better lives through sport.
More details of Fulham FC Foundation activities in 2020 can be found at our Impact Dashboard – www.fulhamfcfoundation-impact.com
