PROUD TO BE
The Northampton Town Football Club Community Trust is launching a new project, supported by the Premier League Fans Fund.
Proud to Be is a year-long project which will aim to build relationships between the football club, the Community Trust and under-represented groups across Northamptonshire, with a view to improving and celebrating equality, diversity and inclusion.
The PL Fans Fund has allowed the Community Trust to create a new job role to drive this important work forward over the next year. Ygor Santos is Northampton Town’s first ever Fan Engagement Officer, and his role will see him provide outreach and engagement opportunities as well as activities throughout the local community in order to attract and engage with a diverse range of supporters and participants.
Phase One of the project will see the Fan Engagement Officer start to identify and engage with different community groups and members of the community to understand the current barriers to accessing the football club and Community Trust’s activities.
Phase Two of the project will see a range of ideas introduced to reduce or remove the identified barriers, ensuring the people or groups who highlight these are actively involved in the process. This could mean anything from working with community members with dementia or a disability to support them to continue attending fixtures, to helping set up new fan groups to bring people together, to delivering activities on matchdays and non-matchdays to celebrate cultural or religious festivals. The project will respond to the needs of the community to further promote the fact that football is a game for all, and the football club is a place for everyone.
The PL Fans Fund provides grants to support football clubs at all levels of the game to strengthen connections between them, their fans, and local communities.
The fund supports a range of fan-focused and fan-led projects, helping to foster a sense of belonging through meaningful engagement. This includes schemes for under-represented groups, to further develop an inclusive and welcoming matchday experience for everyone.
