Based on the further announcements and advice from the Government, Football Association (FA) and the EFL Trust, we have taken the decision to postpone all community activities with immediate effect for the foreseeable future.
Delivery of our programmes within schools will not be affected and will continue as normal in line with current Government guidelines. This will be reviewed on a daily basis in line with the ever-changing situation. The safety, health and wellbeing of our staff, participants and stakeholders remains the main priority in all decisions that we take.
We would like to take a moment to thank you for your support during these uncertain times. You may not know this, but as a charity we are financially independent from the Football Club. We rely upon grant funding, income generated from delivering services within the community and the kindness and donations of our supporters and sponsors. As such we understand and fully empathise how intimidating the current climate is - both financially, and from a perspective of well-being. It is our hope that in the coming days we can find new ways to support and serve our community as we implement these new measures to protect all those in our community, including our staff, participants and members of the public.
Until we can resume our normal services we intend to adapt and evolve to this situation to ensure that we can continue to provide the support to our community that is integral to our purpose as a Community Trust. This will include providing some of our activities digitally, enabling them to be accessed remotely. Further details on this will be shared shortly.
We are also exploring opportunities and ideas of how we can adjust our programmes to continue to support our more vulnerable participants from afar during this difficult period. In particular, we would like to reach those who are more vulnerable to illness and prone to social isolation, including older adults and those with health issues and disabilities. We welcome ideas from community members, parents and players around how we can best do this.
If you wish to help or have any suggestions of how we can adapt to serve our community during these difficult times, please do feel welcome to send us your ideas to community@ntfc.co.uk. We appreciate your feedback and inspiration.
In the meantime, we, like many charities, will be hit financially through this time and the support of the community will be vital to our ‘bouncebackability’. We have set up a Northampton Lottery funding page which is helping to raise funds not only for ourselves but for other charities in the area too with every ticket bought. If you would like to support please visit: https://www.northamptonlottery.co.uk/support/northampton-town-fc-community-trust
Alternatively, donations can also be made at: https://www.justgiving.com/northamptontown-communitytrust
Thank you for your understanding and support at this current time, we will of course keep you updated in due course and we look forward to seeing you in person at our sessions again in the near future.
Phillip Smith
CEO
Northampton Town FC Community Trust
Scott Desborough
Chair of Trustees
Northampton Town FC Community Trust