Blackburn Rovers Community Fund offers support to families this Christmas

Blackburn Rovers Football Club and Blackburn Rovers Community Trust’s joint initiative, The One Community Fund, has been offering support to families across the borough this Christmas.

The Club and Trust have been working alongside Blackburn with Darwen Council to identify those families most in need to ensure they can have a Christmas to remember.

The festive period is especially challenging this year due to the cost-of-living crisis, and by working together, The One Community Fun can provide an opportunity for many to enjoy Christmas with their loved ones.

Cllr Julie Gunn, Executive Member for Children, Young People and Education, at Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council said:

We understand that Christmas is a pressured time for many. This year it is of course even more difficult.  The One Community Fund alleviates a little of that pressure so that families can have the Christmas they would like.
The support that families receive often changes their entire Christmas. We are very grateful to Blackburn Rovers Football Club for their support.

Maria Nugent, Early Years’ Service Lead at Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council, added:

We have worked with Blackburn Rovers for several years in helping prepare food hampers.

For our families, having a voucher doesn’t make them any different from any other parent because lots of us have vouchers. It also means that they can get excited as they can choose, not separate, or feel less valued than someone who might have more money.

We try to get the vouchers to everybody. 130 vouchers will go to our young people living in care for when they come out to live independently. The rest of the vouchers go to our support families and children most in need. We then get them all distributed before Christmas.

We take an eyes-on approach to our families. Forty vouchers will be kept in the children’s centres, as five are open between Christmas and New Year, just in case there’s a family who might go into crisis who we might not be working with, so we can go into a children’s centre, and we’ll give them a voucher. If not, we’ll go back into social care in January, and that’s the approach that we’ll take through partnerships, so the families feel they are looked after.”

Blackburn Rovers Community Trust Chief Executive Officer, Gary Robinson, said:

We are proud to be working alongside Blackburn Rovers Football to help families in need this Christmas.

Christmas can prove to be a very challenging and difficult time for many, and collectively, we want to show our support through The One Community Fund.

“The One Community Fund epitomises our values and beliefs, not just over the Christmas period, but all year round, to be a community and family focused football club.

To donate towards The One Community Fund, please CLICK HERE.