Saints Foundation Matchday Showcase
With the new look St Mary's footprint and pre-match atmosphere, Saints Foundation have been able to engage with fans in a whole new way on a matchday.
Our project showcase matchdays have seen our projects take to the family fan zone to run activities, talk to fans, and raise awareness of the work we do to support Southampton.
It is the project teams that work in the community who take to St Mary's on these matchdays so fans can hear first hand from the people delivering work just how important that work is. These kicked off with our Premier League Fans Fund projects being spotlighted during our Premier League fixture against Manchester United.
Charlie Martin, Head of Fundraising and Marketing, said: "The new fanzones and increased activity around the stadium have given us a huge opportunity to talk to more fans around the work we do. As the charity of Southampton Football Club, it is hugely important to us that Saints fans are aware and proud of what we do to support the community."
Community Champions had the opportunity to showcase our Secondary Schools Engagement project to fans as they were arriving at St Mary's before the Carabou Cup game vs Stoke City. They were out and about in both the Family and Northam Fanzone, informing fans of the great work done in our 9 Secondary Schools across Southampton.
A large part of the role of a Community Champion is inspiring the young people they work with, so we asked fans to let us know what advice they would give to a young person. Fans engaged brilliantly, with answers ranging from 'don't let others opinions stop you from reaching your dreams' to 'talk to someone when you're struggling'.
Overall it was great to raise awareness of the project and facilitate some great conversations around increasing the young people of Southampton's aspirations, with some of the best advice from the night being directly shared with our cohorts of participants.
Community Champions is funded through the Premier League PFA Community Fund and St James' Place Charitable Foundation.
Our next showcase will be against Liverpool on Sunday November 24th, and our Gender Equality projects will be under the spotlight for White Ribbon Day.
