Northampton Town Football Club's Charitable Foundation has appointed its official charity partners for the 2018/2019 season.
The club will be working with a wide cross section of charities, both local and further afield, and partnering with charities who help the young, the disadvantaged, cancer patients and those who provide emergency medical assistance.
The charities chosen are;
NORTHAMPTONSHIRE RED CROSS
A local branch of the Red Cross, raising funds to help causes in need here in Northamptonshire.
SPINAL INJURIES ASSOCIATION
The Spinal Injuries Association (SIA) is the expert voice and leading source of support and information for people with spinal cord injury in the UK. From the moment of injury, through rehab and beyond, they support spinal cord injured people to help them lead fulfilled lives, and show that there is a life after spinal cord injury.
YOUNG EPILEPSY
Young Epilepsy is the national charity supporting children and young people aged 25 and under with epilepsy and associated conditions, as well as their families. They exist to improve the lives of children and young people with the condition to enable them to fulfil their potential and ensure they have the best quality of life.
LEWIS FOUNDATION
The Lewis Foundation provide gifts and support to those battling with the practicalities when fighting cancer in Northampton.
NORTHAMPTON SAMARITANS
The Northampton Samaritans offer a continuing commitment to providing emotional support to the local community. This includes telephone, email and SMS text messaging targeted at 15-35 year olds who are most at risk from taking their own lives and form part of Samaritans' drive to raise awareness about emotional health. By giving people access to emotional support, providing a non-judgemental and confidential listening service, they aim to give callers the confidence to deal positively with depression, anxiety and stress before reaching the point of despair.
HOME-START
Home-Start is a voluntary organisation that offers support and practical help to young families living in the South Northamptonshire and Daventry Districts. All families supported by the scheme are experiencing difficult or stressful situations and have at least one child under 5 years of age.
SWAIN BENEVOLENT FUND
The charity of the Northamptonshire Football Association to support those who are injured playing local football and then unable to work.
NORTHAMPTONSHIRE ASSOCIATION FOR THE BLIND
They provide support for the relief and support of blind, partially sighted and visually impaired people of all ages in the county of Northamptonshire with a dedicated children and family service focused on helping young people successfully overcome the emotional and practical challenges that come with sight loss.
BEDFORDSHIRE & NORTHAMPTONSHIRE MS THERAPY CENTRE
The MS Therapy Centre has been operating from Bedford for 35 years, and provides various therapies to help and support people with Multiple Sclerosis throughout Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire. MS is a progressive disease that can affect every aspect of a person’s life.
DREAMS COME TRUE
Dreams Come True is a charity fulfilling the dreams of children and young people with serious and life limiting conditions. They are the only charity in their sector that helps young people between the ages of 2 to 21 years old.
PROSTATE CANCER UK
They help raise awareness and life-saving funds for the disease that kills one man every 45 minutes. They are working towards creating a new prostate cancer test, benefiting and saving Cobblers’ fans lives.
NORTHAMPTON HOPE CENTRE
Their work helps people experiencing the most acute problems of disadvantage, exclusion and marginalisation. As well as giving practical support, they focus on helping people to help themselves, provide support and services that will enable individuals to take back control of their own lives, and campaign with them against the causes of their disadvantage.
"As a club we do a lot of work with a whole range of charities and charitable causes and it is particularly pleasing to see the impact we have in Northamptonshire," said Chairman Kelvin Thomas.
"We have seen many times how the power of football can break down barriers, create opportunities and open doors.
"Already this year we have seen staff get involved with the Big Sleep Out to support the Hope Centre, we staged the big celebrity football match to help fight childhood cancer and a few weeks ago some of us cycled from London to Amsterdam raising a combined total of around £60,000 across these three events, while the players have made
countless visits to support charities, events, schools and good causes.
"The Northampton Town Football in the Community Trust are more active than ever and we hope we can make a difference to the charities we are partnering with next season."
John Morris, Chairman of the club's Charitable Foundation, added, "We had a record number of charities apply to become official partners for the coming season and that was very encouraging. We carefully considered all applications and have drawn up a list of charities to cover a wide range of causes, ages, circumstances and
situations.
"We believe we have a good balance of charities across all sectors to work with and we hope we can make a difference to their work and the causes they fight for."
Being an official partner entitles the charity to the following benefits;
One bucket collection during the season as part of a themed home game in support of charity
Use of the club badge for promotional purposes
Media coverage of charity events in club's match programme and on the club web-site
Each partner will be adopted by 2 or 3 players who will make personal appearances on behalf of the charity each year
3 charities will receive a donation from the club's FA Community Shield share
Access to signed shirts, balls and tickets for fundraising purposes.