Foundation February Fundraiser 2023

An Introduction to South Shields FC Foundation

The Foundation is a Registered Charity, its charitable purpose is to support the health and wellbeing of people of all ages living in a former coalfield community that is amongst the most deprived in the country.

 We co-design and deliver services and activities pecifically designed to make a difference to the five things that contribute to people’s health and wellbeing:

• Making new friends (social interaction)
• Taking part in regular physical activity
• Understanding what’s happening around you and staying focused on the present 
• Giving something back, whether that’s volunteering time or charitable giving.
• Learning or developing a skill
   

Our target beneficiaries include (but are not limited to):

• Anyone with a postcode that identifies them as living within an area that falls within the worst 5% of local authority wards according to the Office for National Statistics Indices of Multiple Deprivation.
• Young people aged 3-18 and their families.
• Older people especially those facing challenges including social isolation.
• Anyone from an under-represented group especially those where service design precludes their inclusion.
• People, especially young people, at risk of offending or re-offending.
• Those furthest away from employment. 

 The Difference we make

In 2020/21 we had over 57,000 visits to our activity programmes by adults and young people. That is made up of 1,755 young people and 260 adults regularly attending physical activity sessions that support their mental health and wellbeing.

This was achieved by our coaching staff supported by a group of 58 volunteers performing various roles who delivered 5,220 volunteering hours in the year. 

We ran and supported 5 different awareness raising campaigns around issues including the Covid pandemic designed to support peoples mental health and wellbeing. 

Since 2017 we have used a Wellbeing Valuation Approach to measuring and recording our social impact. Wellbeing Valuation is in the Treasury’s Green Book, the UKs core guide to policy evaluation.

We have now broken through the £10m marker in local social impact as a result of our activities in the last 5 years.

2017/2018 £1,110,803
2018/2019 £2,229,585
2020 (part) £1,129,466
2020/2021 £5,693,334

  Total               £10,163,188

The project we are crowdfunding for

We are embarking on a large scale redevelopment of the facilities at Harton & Westoe Miners Welfare that will widen the range and number of people we are able to work with and further increase our social impact. It is funded from a number of different sources backed up with a sustainable business plan.

The first part of this plan was to construct an additional room at Harton Welfare to offer opportunities for learning, social interaction and healthy activities. We secured Sport England funding but the increased construction costs as a consequence of the pandemic has left us with a shortfall.

Money from this crowdfund will be spent on:

• Fit out of the new internal space to make it suitable for the activity programmes we deliver
• An external space to accommodate outdoor classes expanding the programme even further 

Completing the larger project will enable us to play our part in tackling the challenges for people living in South Tyneside:

• Obesity in children at age 11
• Overall health, especially in women
• Lifestyle choices of adults
• Employability and the high number of people considered to be furthest away from employment
• Social isolation
• Crime and the fear of crime
• Impact of an ageing population

Thank you