Everton Launch Campaign To Combat Isolation and Support Society's Most Vulnerable

Friday, 20 March, 2020 56comments  |  Jump to most recent

Everton and its official charity have, this evening, launched ‘Blue Family', a coordinated outreach and engagement campaign to maintain contact with fans and provide vital support and assistance to some of the most vulnerable, socially isolated  and at-risk members of the community in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

The 'Blue Family' campaign will maintain and extend the reach of the Club and the charity following the closure of all Club sites, the suspension of football fixtures and the postponement of most community programme delivery.

The Club will be providing £50,000 to fund the launch and initial activities and will be reallocating Club and Community staff to ensure the effective delivery of the campaign with the initial outreach including:

  • Fans and members of the community in greatest need contacted by Everton in the Community staff to deliver tailored and focused support, assistance and guidance, including:
    • Essential food parcels distribution, including breakfast packs for young children
    • Financial assistance for prescription purchases and delivery
    • Mobile phone credit for those living alone and with limited support networks
    • Support with gas and/or electricity vouchers for those facing increased fuel bills
    • Mental health support and advice
  • A referral service for access to Everton in the Community's support provision
  • Calls from the Everton Fan Centre to thousands of fans to maintain contact and provide a friendly voice to talk to, prioritising the elderly and isolated
  • Increased communication through the Club's email, social media and web platforms to share important public information and deliver engaging content for those in isolation
  • Exercise and mindfulness videos provided by trained staff from the Club and Everton in the Community
 

Reader Comments (56)

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Dennis Stevens
1 Posted 20/03/2020 at 12:22:42
Excellent news! It's long been my view that if the Football side of the club had been as effectively run as the Community side has been, we'd be Champions 9 out of 10 seasons.
Denny Kerr
2 Posted 20/03/2020 at 12:25:34
Absolutely brilliant move by the club.

This is one of the reasons we all love Everton. It's more than just a football club.

Proud to be an Evertonian for 66 years.

Here's wishing every fan and their families a safe journey through these difficult times, take care of yourselves, and each other.

A socially distanced Blue, across the Pond.

Martin Nicholls
3 Posted 20/03/2020 at 13:01:38
Great initiative by our great Club. Now watch other "bigger names" follow our lead and get all the press and t.v. coverage.
Stay safe fellow Blues.
Dave Ganley
4 Posted 20/03/2020 at 13:26:52
Its is a great idea and seen first hand it paying dividends. I go to the game with "the arl queen" who is 91. The club phoned her up on Wednesday making sure she was ok and if she needed anything. I thought that was a great gesture by the club to make sure all vulnerable people are looked after and are not alone. The club deserves all the accolades it gets for EITC
John G Davies
5 Posted 20/03/2020 at 13:45:37
Love this club of ours.
Peter Mills
6 Posted 20/03/2020 at 18:58:21
This is an excellent initiative, and I don't wish to detract from it. But I am surprised by the club's silence around season tickets for next year.

I know many people have already committed, some have already had direct debit payments taken from their bank accounts. However others, like myself, have been waiting until the end of March to make the one-off payment, and now find ourselves concerned at having to fork out £595 when immediate future income is at severe threat (I'm self-employed).

Christine Foster
7 Posted 20/03/2020 at 20:25:33
So proud of this, I will be writing to the club to say so. Over the years I have been a serious critic of how our club has been run. Credit where credit is due, fabulous initiative that needs rolling out across the world. When I finally land in NZ after a nightmare journey I will be turning my thoughts and deeds in support.
Ian Bennett
8 Posted 20/03/2020 at 20:55:59
The BBC are re-running some FA cup games. Sunday 3.10 is part two that features Everton vs Ipswich from 1985.

Everton at their peak, unbeaten at home in the FA cup for 10 years. Current FA cup holders and eventual league champions. Won the European Cup Winners Cup, and only denied another FA cup from sheet exhaustion.

Special days from Kendall and Co. Get a beer and enjoy watching Everton on the tv again.

Dave Abrahams
9 Posted 20/03/2020 at 21:01:49
Peter (6), I Echo your post, the praise and the silence of the club regarding next years season ticket sales, I also make a one off payment and would like to know and where to make it, especially before April 2nd.
Brian Williams
10 Posted 20/03/2020 at 22:03:20
Lads, drop the club an email. Always found em to be really helpful and usually quick to respond.
Andy McNabb
11 Posted 20/03/2020 at 22:05:52
Dennis #1 I was just about to post that.

Perhaps we could do some job swaps within the Club?

Anyway - credit where it's due. Dave #4 great to hear it is actually in motion. We often underestimate small gestures like that.

Brent Stephens
12 Posted 20/03/2020 at 22:15:50
Peter #6 " However others, like myself, have been waiting until the end of March to make the one-off payment, and now find ourselves concerned at having to fork out £595 when immediate future income is at severe threat (I'm self-employed)".

£595? By the time this is all over you'll qualify for the £299 rate for those aged 64+.

Patrick McFarlane
13 Posted 20/03/2020 at 00:11:54
Unfortunately Eitc's initiative isn't worthy of a mention on BBC's latest sports bulletin as they praise James Milner for sharpening pencils for his kids. This is third time in the last few days that LFC players have had coverage for their coping with being indoors one was of Oxlade Chamberlain dancing on some stairs with his partner and another of Milner doing something else inane at home. Do the BBC, like much of the UK media, believe that only one club in hundreds of others matters? Given what Jay Wood (BRZ) linked on another thread I shouldn't be shocked or surprised with the BBC's world view.

Good on Bill Kenwright for spending half an hour on the phone to a housebound elderly lady earlier today and good on Seamus for checking up on another fan via the phone. These are proper ways to support people in need and if the media don't show an interest at least we know what our club is capable of.

Dave Abrahams
14 Posted 21/03/2020 at 09:12:28
Brent (12), what I'm concerned about is if we can't make contact with the club, as it is closed down, to make the payment how do I, and others, secure my seat. A fan on here the other day said he had Emailed the club about the last day for paying with the discount and he was told the date hadn't altered, so where do we go from here.?
Brian Williams
15 Posted 21/03/2020 at 09:20:16
Good move on the EITC front.
What I'd like to see done now is for all premier league clubs to "adopt" a lower league club, or more than one maybe, and for our players to offer to pay the wages of the players of the adopted club.
Imagine the good any one of our players could do by taking even as little as 5% of their current salary and spreading that around to several lower league players who's clubs just can't afford to pay them without games being played.
Everton could adopt Tranmere, for instance, a club we've helped out in the past and our players could pay their wages and not even notice the reduction in their own wage.
This'd make a difference not only to the player but their families and extended families.

Joe McMahon
16 Posted 21/03/2020 at 10:01:21
This is a superb gesture by EITC.

Ian @8, if you are suggesting a tribute to Kendall on Sunday, then scotch would be more appropriate.

Joe McMahon
17 Posted 21/03/2020 at 19:17:21
As suspected no mention of this on local BBC news, just what the Manchester clubs are doing.
Eric Paul
18 Posted 21/03/2020 at 19:29:42
DAVE
I think they are working from home
Dave Abrahams
19 Posted 21/03/2020 at 19:35:17
Eric (18), you haven't got any of their addresses or phone numbers have you?
Eric Paul
20 Posted 21/03/2020 at 19:48:44
DAVE
Yes but I can't give them out. They are using the same system on laptops but there could be a problem with security settings working remotely
Dave Abrahams
21 Posted 21/03/2020 at 20:00:29
Eric(20), well can you ask one of them what's the best way to sort this problem out or ask Denise Baxindale to make an announcement about this.
Eric Paul
22 Posted 21/03/2020 at 20:23:44
DAVE
I'm in the same boat as you but I I have just been on the site to renew and there didn't seem to be a problem
Darren Hind
23 Posted 22/03/2020 at 06:14:05
When we get it right. We properly get it right.

I never thought I would write to the club, but I think I will be doing so today. Very uplifting.

Brian @15,

Get paid. Fantastic idea!

Derek Thomas
24 Posted 22/03/2020 at 06:51:04
Patrick @13; last time I looked on the BBC, the sum total of rs community care seems to be Mane sending a couple of days pay home to Senegal and a players whip round towards the food bank.

Other Clubs are just donating pies and stuff they couldn't sell on a cancelled match day.

Though to be fair, EitC have had structures and community ties in place for a few years now and are well placed to hit the ground running.

Conor McCourt
25 Posted 22/03/2020 at 07:16:21
Everton really are the People's Club... sometimes we forget why we are all Blues, it's these acts which make us proud. From the article, it's not just tokenism but looks like a lot of thought has gone in on how the Club could be best effective.
Tony Abrahams
26 Posted 22/03/2020 at 07:58:45
Woke up this morning put Avicii on my tele, and then thought about how much I love and miss Everton.

Great that our club is doing something both positive and necessary in this hour of need, and I'd like to echo what Darren said, about Brian's post@15.

Nothing has happened yet, it's still very early days in this horrible battle that some people don't seem to fully understand, but I've been thinking about footballers and their sheltered lives, and honestly think people might turn on them when this is all over, if they just carry on taking their obscene wages, and do nothing.

Kevin Prytherch
27 Posted 22/03/2020 at 08:21:07
I've never understood the criticism that comes from some posters about EitC. This part of the club is one of the reasons I'm proud to support the club. We're not a soulless corporate club, we're a community club with a proud heritage and we do things right. We care about people and not column inches.

Also, for all the Kenwright bashing, the guy has proven time and time again that he really is one of the decent guys in football. He might have made mistakes, but he frequently makes kind gestures and doesn't seek publicity.

I do echo the post in 15, it would be sad to start seeing clubs go under and criminal to see Premier League players earning more in a week than what would be needed to keep an entire club afloat for a month. The players should follow the clubs lead and support others financially in any way they can.

Dave Abrahams
28 Posted 22/03/2020 at 09:15:24
Eric (22), can you explain the process, how you got on the site and renewed your season ticket, if you don't mind?

I'm a bit, or very, illiterate when it comes to using the internet and website. ToffeeWeb is virtually the only site I use, that's why I'm on it so much.

Eric Paul
29 Posted 22/03/2020 at 09:43:40
Dave,

Log in to your account, click on 'Tickets' at the bottom, then, in the Tickets section, scroll down and you will see 'Renew'.

I hope this helps.

Tony Abrahams
30 Posted 22/03/2020 at 09:46:39
He will have you round to his house soon, Eric, be careful!

"Kenwright doesn't seek publicity" is an absolute cracker... ssshh don't say nothing!

Brent Stephens
31 Posted 22/03/2020 at 09:51:32
Dave, open a new tab in your browser; enter the Everton website details; on the left-hand side you'll see a menu and part-way down that menu, it says "Renew Your Season Ticket". Click on that.

You then see "Welcome. Don't have an account?" If you don't yet have an account and password for Everton, click on "Register now". Enter the details required on the page that next shows.

Or give me you're phone number and I'll talk you through it.

Paul Birmingham
32 Posted 22/03/2020 at 09:53:45
Salute to EitC, great work by EFC.
Tony Abrahams
33 Posted 22/03/2020 at 09:56:15
He's deaf, Brent!
Brent Stephens
34 Posted 22/03/2020 at 10:03:24
Tony, I never know whether you're joking! Is Dave really deaf?!
Jay Wood
[BRZ]

35 Posted 22/03/2020 at 10:14:00
Here is an article listing the initiatives each PL club has taken in their local communities as a result of Covid-19.

Chelsea has impressively put up NHS staff in a club hotel at Stamford Bridge, the two Manchester clubs have each coughed up £50,000 for local food banks, but one club is head and shoulders above the rest in the steps they have taken.

Proud to be Blue.

Link

Chris Williams
36 Posted 22/03/2020 at 10:29:52
It's good Jay,

Amazing they can find so much space to describe the fact that Liverpool as a club has done... errrrr, fuck-all!!!

Tony Abrahams
37 Posted 22/03/2020 at 10:36:21
Not officially, Brent, but just count how many times “he says what?”

“Here's that score, I owe you” usually breaks the spell, but that won't work if you're on the phone to him though, so best of luck, mate!

Jay Wood
[BRZ]

38 Posted 22/03/2020 at 10:41:35
I also chuckled at the Liverpool entry Chris.

When it opens by saying Klippity wrote to all the fans in support of suspending the PL you kinda know the rest is going to be underwhelming.

It was.

Brent Stephens
39 Posted 22/03/2020 at 10:43:40
Tony, is Dave really having trouble renewing his season ticket and getting his usual seat? I genuinely want to help but I'm not sure what his problem is.

As I understand it, he only uses cash and there's nobody at Everton to accept that?

Chris Williams
40 Posted 22/03/2020 at 10:48:10
Very interesting discussion on Sunday Supplement ( not something I'd expect to utter), about this hiatus being a proper opportunity to reset attitudes about the obscenity of how the cash in the game is distributed, both how the largest clubs are are getting too much preference within the Premier League and in Europe and how the cash should be allowed to filter further down the leagues and the grass roots, agent fees etc. The Glasers' rape of Man Utd.

Also how fans are taken for granted, ticket prices, timings of games... They've not mentioned VAR yet! Or the Arteta money. Very much against games played behind closed doors

It mirrors the reaction of a right-wing Tory government adopting Keynesian economics, and behaving like the 1945 Labour Government (up to a point).

Chance of a reset? Answers on a postcard

Jay Wood
[BRZ]

41 Posted 22/03/2020 at 10:49:06
Is Dave's problem that he can only pay in thrupenny pieces and tanners he has been saving from his loose change through the year?
John G Davies
42 Posted 22/03/2020 at 10:51:36
Definitely a change in the air.

Just got back from a walk, never had so many people saying "Good morning, how are you?"

John G Davies
43 Posted 22/03/2020 at 10:52:56
. You keeping... Stay safe etc.
All strangers.
Community spirit making a comeback?
Tony Abrahams
44 Posted 22/03/2020 at 10:54:13
He's having problems Brent, but I've told him he can just give someone the money, and they will get it on their card mate. I will get my son to do it because I haven't renewed any of my tickets either yet, but I've always been a last minute person, whereas Dave wants everything done yesterday, so he can sit back and relax.

Thanks for trying to help, though, Brent, but, if you've heard of the term “No good deed-goes unpunished”, then you will be glad your help is not needed — just yet!

Tony Abrahams
45 Posted 22/03/2020 at 10:56:21
He's probably in church now Jay, getting the last of his money off the collection plate! (The old ones are the best haha, well until they start going deaf!!)
Brent Stephens
46 Posted 22/03/2020 at 10:57:47
Tony, thanks for clarifying!

Brent Stephens
47 Posted 22/03/2020 at 11:01:00
Tony, if I gave Dave a penny for every time you had a pop at the old man, he'd have enough for his season ticket for the next 10 years.
Peter Mills
48 Posted 22/03/2020 at 11:55:16
Tony, I think the church is stopping Masses. Sounds like Dave's income is going to take a big hit!
Dave Abrahams
49 Posted 22/03/2020 at 12:07:14
Peter(48), stop it Peter!!, The masses were stopped on Thursday so no mass until further notice, take no notice to Tony and the collection plate.

My ambition, as a kid was to be the first Scouse Pope, but I did have sticky fingers, when I was a kid, so that ambition got shelved, and I resigned myself not to think about Rome and the Vatican, they'll never know what they missed.

Dave Abrahams
50 Posted 22/03/2020 at 12:18:30
Eric (29) and Brent (31), thanks very much for your help, it is sincerely appreciated (genuine), it is getting sorted now, so thanks again.

To be honest the day they make it a cashless society, I'll be bleedin' knackered. Mind you I'll be made up not being able to spend any money!!

You'll have to help me out then, Tony!!

Tony Abrahams
51 Posted 22/03/2020 at 13:30:12
If it goes cashless, Dave, I'm off. I don't mind living like a robot for now, for obvious reasons, but not long term though, because I couldn't stand not being able to tip the barmaid. They have got way too much control of us already... please.
Jamie Crowley
52 Posted 22/03/2020 at 13:33:59
Pete @ 48 and Dave A.-

They've cancelled Mass here. The Diocese of St Augustine is actually live-streaming the Mass on YouTube.

Show time in an hour. It'll be a very weird thing.

John G Davies
53 Posted 22/03/2020 at 14:02:09
How will they overcome the usual donations JC?

Contact less card payments?

Chris Williams
54 Posted 22/03/2020 at 14:22:03
John G,

A miracle will occur.

Kevin Prytherch
55 Posted 22/03/2020 at 19:22:40
Tony 30 - we know people love bashing Kenwright, but he does a lot that he doesn't brag about.

Like the donation to Speedo Mick, didn't see many others doing that.

The countless stories about phoning fans, paying for travel, letting people in the directors boxes who were stranded. The offer to save Bury wasn't leaked by him. This is just in the last year.

You might loath him (don't know if you do) and he obviously does some stuff for publicity, but a lot goes unnoticed.

Tony Abrahams
56 Posted 22/03/2020 at 19:43:50
Another time maybe Kevin. He might be the nicest person in the world, and I also wish we had, had a “few players” as good as him out on the pitch, during his reign, but it will never wash that he's been good for Everton FC, and that's the only thing that has always concerned me.

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