Northampton Town Football Club's Charitable Foundation has appointed its official charity partners for the 2019/2020 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 to work alongside the official charitable arm of the club, the Northampton Town Community Trust, are;
CYNTHIA SPENCER
Cynthia Spencer is a well-known and loved charity at the heart of Northamptonshire’s community. Cynthia Spencer Hospice provides specialist palliative care services for South Northamptonshire, offering care, help and support for individuals and their families who are facing life-limiting illnesses including cancer, Parkinson’s and Motor Neurone Disease. They care for upwards of 1,300 patients through their inpatient unit, Wellbeing Centre (previously known as the Day Hospice) and Lymphoedema clinic.
NORTHAMPTONSHIRE YOUNG CARERS
Northamptonshire Young Carers is part of Northamptonshire Carers, a Local Voluntary Organisation and registered charity that supports carers of all ages. A carer is defined as someone (usually a family member) who provides support and care to someone who has a long-term illness or disability. The role is significant in that without it, the person needing support would not be able to manage their everyday life and routine.
SAMARITANS NORTHAMPTON
Giving local people emotional support, providing a non judgemental and confidential listening service and aiming to give confidence to allow others to deal positively with any issues they face is the aim of the Northampton branch of the Samaritans.
THE SWAIN BENEVOLENT FUND
A Northamptonshire FA fund to help injured amateur footballers in Northamptonshire. The fund is a registered charity and relies solely on donations from clubs, leagues and individuals for its income.
BREAST FRIENDS
Breast Friends Northampton is a local charity that supports people affected by breast cancer in Northants. They offer support through; monthly morning and evening meetings, wellbeing events, wellness walks, free surgery and treatment bags, online forum and breast cancer awareness talks to the community. They also have a secondary support project to help those living with an incurable diagnosis to live the best they can with physical, practical and emotional support.
SANDS UNITED
Sands United is a local football team of Dads who play to support each other and raise money for the Sands Neonatal Death charity. Sands Neonatal Death charity support parents through the bereavement of a loss of a child during pregnancy or after birth.
MYAWARE
Myaware support 81 people living with myasthenia within a 25 mile radius of Northampton.
NORTHAMPTON HOPE CENTRE
The Northampton Hope Centre aims to support people from across Northamptonshire living in extreme poverty, from those living on the street, to those who are struggling to cope with the daily challenges of living life with inadequate support and resource.
"As a club we consistently have a huge, positive impact on the lives of thousands of people across Northamptonshire and beyond," said Chairman Kelvin Thomas.
"We are very proud of the work we do, much of it is away from the spotlight but in the last few months we have staged a big celebrity football match to help fight Archie's Army, some of the staff cycled from London to Amsterdam a week or two ago to raise money for Prostate Cancer UK and some of the other staff are preparing for a Peak District walk in support of MIND, the EFL's official charity in July, while the players have made and continue to make many visits to support charities, events, schools and good causes.
"These headline events support the day to day, week to week work carried out all across the county by our Community Trust whose work covers support, assistance and education from the very young to the elderly across the whole spectrum of the community.
"The Northampton Town Football in the Community Trust continue to go from strength to strength with much of their work going unseen but it is making a real difference to lives of those who we come in to contact with and we hope we can make a difference to the charities we are partnering with next season.
"Football is a very powerful force in breaking down barriers, helping to shine a light on some excellent causes and bringing people together."
John Morris, Chairman of the club's Charitable Foundation, added, "I say this every year, but once again we had a record number of charities apply to become official partners for the coming season and that was very encouraging and shows the reputation of the club as a community based football club is continuing to grow. We carefully considered all applications and have drawn up a list of charities to cover as many different elements as possible.
"The club are particularly well placed to support charities who are based in or who directly help people in Northamptonshire and that was a key element in the process for us. 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 at a home game
- 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.