Donr Spotlight — Introducing: Albion in the Community
Donr Spotlight heads to the south coast of England this week to discuss the work done by Albion in the Community, the official charity of Premier League football club, Brighton and Hove Albion. The charity’s Fundraising and Partnerships Executive, Elliott Batchelor, tells us about using the power of sport to promote the health, wellbeing and education of local people.
Despite not officially registering as a charity until 2005, Albion in the Community has actually been working to support the local community on England’s south coast for more than 28 years.
The goal back then was to use the power of football and the popularity of Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club to drive positive changes in local people and communities across Sussex and to provide support and opportunities where they were most needed. In many ways, the charity’s mission is still the same today:
‘Our main focus is to promote the health, wellbeing and education of local people,’ Elliott explains. ‘In the last 12 months, we have worked with more than 46,000 people across Sussex and now run upwards of 60 different projects and programmes — these can range from football-themed numeracy and literacy campaigns with local schools to providing more than 30 regular football sessions for local people with a disability.
‘The charity prides itself on making our delivery directly responds to local need and, working across such a large geographical area, that need can be very different depending on which part of Sussex you’re in and which section of the community we’re engaging.’
Perhaps fittingly, given that the day of publication for this article is 8th March 2019 — International Women’s Day — Elliott is particularly proud of the charity’s work with local women and girls. ‘Research shows that, throughout Sussex, around 92% of girls aged 13 to 15 are not undertaking the recommended levels of physical activity,’ he says. ‘This can obviously have a knock-on effect in terms of physical and mental health.
‘As a result, we made this an area of focus and have seen a 50% increase in the number of girls attending our weekly football sessions — we have now set ourselves ambitious targets to ensure this figure continues to grow over the coming years.’
Unfortunately, as with many organisations from the third sector, Albion in the Community is experiencing a ‘reduction in available central funding and a tightening of alternative revenue streams earmarked to support social change,’ Elliott reports, explaining how these increasing restrictions are presenting challenges to the good work being done by his charity:
‘With such a wide variety of delivery areas, and such a vast geographic spread, the biggest challenge facing Albion in the Community is ensuring our delivery is targeted in the areas most in-need of support — where our specialism and expertise as a charity can have maximum impact — and [that it] reaches those members of the local community who would benefit most from our interventions.’
These increasing financial challenges mean that effective fundraising has never been more important for Albion in the Community. To that end, the charity has recently signed up to take text donations via Donr’s Text Giving service and plans to use the money raised via the service to continue to fund its local delivery in Sussex:
‘An example of the impact our fundraising can have would be our regular football session for young people with autism,’ says Elliott. ‘[These are] attended by upwards of 20 players every fortnight. Some of these players would not have the opportunity to play football or even take part in regular exercises elsewhere, meaning our session has a genuinely positive impact on them which extends far beyond their enjoyment on the pitch.
‘Our sessions for people with a disability cost between £2,500 and £5,000 a year to run, meaning a successful fundraising campaign has the potential to completely fund one or more of our sessions for up to 12 months.
‘Put simply, the more money we raise, the more sessions we can run, and the more local people we can support.’
If you’d like to help Albion in the Community to continue to support those members of its local community in most need, please text ‘AITC 3’ to 70085 to donate £3*.
*Texts cost the donation amount plus one standard network rate message. Other amounts which can be donated are every whole pound amount from £1 to £20. For instance, text ‘AITC 1’ to 70085 to donate £1 or text ‘AITC 16’ to 70085 to donate £16.
