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EFL Trust and Ferrero UK deliver Joy of Moving Programme for the seventh year

Southend United Community & Educational Trust, in partnership with The EFL Trust and Ferrero UK, are delighted to announce that the Joy of Moving Programme will be delivered once again throughout the 2020-21 academic year.

Joy of Moving, Ferrero’s unbranded CSR programme, has been supporting children across EFL Communities in the UK for the past six years. The programme consists of two elements – the school-based Move & Learn programme and the Joy of Moving Festivals, which have been developed in conjunction with EFL Trust. These programmes are designed to inspire children to move through play, and in doing so, build up their physical fitness, motor coordination, cognitive functions and creativity and life skills and develop positive habits for adulthood.

Through the partnership, Southend United Community & Educational Trust will continue to support and inspire thousands of children in South Essex to lead an active and balanced lifestyle.

Never has it been more important to support children in these unprecedented times. According to a poll of PE teachers and school leaders by the Youth Sport Trust, 73% of children returned to school after lockdown with lower fitness levels. In light of the ongoing possibility for further periods of lockdown and tiers affecting exercise, it is important to ensure the programme continues to play a part in supporting communities.

This year also saw the launch of the online Resource Hub that hosts a variety of fun games and activities to get children and families moving at home – even Peter Andre and his children got involved in the Joy of Moving programme! Furthermore, as it was recognised that children were unlikely to experience the fun of their school sports day, we hosted the first ever ‘Joy of Moving Home School Festival’ which reached over 250,000 children and families. Mike Evans, Chief Executive at EFL Trust said:

“Children have been one of the hardest hit during this pandemic and the emphasis on the Joy of Moving Programme is even greater to support children, not only physically, but mentally. We are extremely proud of the Joy of Moving Programme and the positive impact it has had during this challenging year. But there is still so much more to do and we are delighted to continue our partnership with Ferrero and through EFL Trust’s network of Club Community Organisations we can continue to deliver a fun educational programme to children and families.”

Mike Evans, Chief Executive at EFL Trust

Charlie Cayton, Director of Corporate Affairs and Communications, Ferrero UK said;

“We are proud to have been able to deliver our Joy of Moving CSR programme in the UK over the last six years through our long-term partnership with the EFL Trust. Together, we have helped to move over 340,000 children and delivered over one million hours in schools. In these difficult times, we must continue to play our part in the communities in which we are a part of. We remain committed to delivering this fantastic programme to inspire children and families up and down the country to get moving through play.”

Charlie Cayton, Director of Corporate Affairs and Communications, Ferrero UK

To learn more about the Joy of Moving Programme visit www.joyofmovingresourcehub.co.uk.

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Tackling Loneliness Together

Southend United Community & Educational Trust (SUCET) is proud to be part of a major new nationwide programme to tackle loneliness among older people, known as Tackling Loneliness Together.

The EFL Trust has received £810,000 from the Department of Digital Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) to support EFL Club Community Organisations in 32 deprived locations across England – including Southend-on-Sea and its surrounding areas – with the aim of connecting more older people at risk of loneliness.

A recent study from the Office National Statistics (ONS) showed that 2.6 million adults reported that they felt lonely ”often” or ”always” whilst 7.4 million adults reported their well-being had been affected through them having felt lonely in the past seven days.

Since lockdown, staff from the SUCET team have been in regular contact with members of the charity’s Senior Shrimpers and Walking Football programmes, checking in via phone calls and Facebook messaging as well as sending letters in the post to provide reassurance and offer extra support during such a challenging time.

There are plans to work alongside Southend United to develop a ‘buddy system’, enabling more older people to attend matches in a supported fashion, as well as arrange socially distanced cafe meetups at Roots Hall whereby people can get together face-to-face and have a chat to help reduce social isolation.

Mike Evans, Chief Executive Officer of the EFL Trust, commented:

“We are proud to have been chosen to be part of this vital mission to support the older people in our communities.

“We see this as an endorsement of the great work that our CCOs have done in this area and we know there is so much more that our network will achieve. Our Health and Wellbeing team are working hard to match the expertise of our network to the communities where it is most desperately needed and we continue to work with DCMS, NHS, Public Health England and other agencies to ensure we can all build back better after COVID-19.”

If you, a friend, family member or neighbour would like to benefit from this new programme, please contact April Smith on a.smith@southendunited-cet.co.uk or give us a call on 01702 341351.

You can also join our Tackling Loneliness Together Facebook group by clicking here.

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FIT FANS online campaign launches to get football fans active

The EFL and EFL Trust have today launched an online FIT FANS campaign to provide a safe way for fans to get active in the safety of their homes.

In support of Sport England’s ‘Stay in Work Out’ campaign, the programme will ensure fans have a safe way to start and maintain exercise safely, during this current period.

According to new research released by Sport England, over 65% of people believe that exercise is helping them with their mental health, making an active lifestyle more important than ever for EFL fans and the nation.

Over the next 12 weeks we will feature sessions developed by two fitness coaches, Scott Copeland and Steph Thompson from the Club Community Organisation (CCO) network and will be released twice a week for fans to follow and get involved.

The sessions will introduce the concepts of safe warm up and cool down, increasing daily step counts and activity levels gradually, before moving onto sessions including aerobic strength and training. The exercises will vary and be fun to really give fans the chance to keep moving and see improvements in their fitness.

The sessions will be released each week on Wednesday at 5pm and Saturday at 11am on the EFL and EFL Trust YouTube channels, and will be available for fans to watch at their own leisure within the safety of their own homes.

Stay home, save lives and join the FIT FANS movement as we find new ways to keep moving in around our homes.