Community Staff Visit EFL clubs to share ideas.
In January Colchester United Community Foundation (CUCF) staff Rick Goldsbrough and Joe Hart visited EFL clubs in a number of idea sharing study visits to support the development of the organisation.
In the lead up to Colchester United’s recent away fixture at Morecambe, CUCF Senior Leadership staff Rick and Joe were kindly invited to collaborate with The Burton Albion Community Trust and The Wigan Athletic Community Trust. This included meeting with senior community staff members of these two clubs at their community venues to discuss all things surrounding the roles of Community Foundations/Trusts. Topics of discussion detailed the impact that club community organisations (CCO’s) have within their local communities and within their football clubs, alongside operations and community programme development.
Katie Johnson, Education Manager at The Burton Albion Community Trust shared the impact of the visit; “It was great to have Rick and Joe from Colchester United Community Foundation visit us to discuss how we operate as a CCO, share good practice and how we manage the challenges that we face. It will be great to connect our staff with various programme/project leads at Colchester to continue the conversations across the network to further develop and support our staff in the future.”
Gareth Nolan, CEO of The Wigan Athletic Community Trust detailed the experience; “'It was great to welcome Rick and Joe to discuss all things going on in the CCO world. These catch ups with colleagues across the network provide invaluable experiences and an opportunity to share best practice but more importantly share problems and discuss potential solutions. Colchester are doing great work across their provision in the community, particularly their Football Development provision, one area in which we will be linking up to enhance our own provision further.”
The following day both staff were kindly invited by Morecambe FC Community Sports to attend the fixture between the two clubs at the Mazuma Stadium and continue the ideas sharing process, prior and post-match.
CUCF is committed to looking at different methods to support the development of staff and the organisation and these opportunities are an example of opportunities that are being created to support this process.
Rick Goldsbrough, Colchester United Chief Operating Officer shared; “The opportunity to have an insight into similar organisations working in different parts of the country was very beneficial. We all have the same role to support our communities on behalf of our respective football clubs and positively impact people’s lives every day. Being able to share successes and challenges will only support all in enhancing and achieving more success in the future.”
If you would like to engage with CUCF please contact us on cucf@colchesterunited.net / 01206 755160.
Alternatively, you can book onto community programmes by visiting - https://colchester-united-cf.classforkids.io/