Blackpool FC Community Trust column: Working together to help the Blackpool community

With financial support from Blackpool Council and Blackpool FC owner Simon Sadler’s Segantii Capital Management, we will be opening up the doors of Bloomfield Road and operating Warm-Up Hubs.

The Hubs will provide families and those socially isolated and vulnerable with a place to keep warm, socialise and have access to free WiFi, coffee, biscuits and hot food.

The first Warm-up Hub was held in the Moretti Lounge on the North-West corner of the Bloomfield Road stadium on Wednesday this week and the intention is for these to operate until March.

The Hubs provide an opportunity to sit, stay warm and talk to Blackpool FC Community Trust staff.

Family Warm Hubs will be open each weekday during school term-time from 3pm-6pm, and will include a meal each day, homework clubs and other activities.

In addition, the Pool Together Hubs will operate from noon until 3pm each Tuesday and Thursday, offering hot drinks, biscuits and activities to engage in.

These Hubs too will operate during term-time but not in school holidays.

The football club is determined to make a difference and relieve some of the pressures on families and vulnerable, older adults in the town, and so has engaged with its partners and sponsors with a view to further supporting the Warm Up Hubs initiative.

A Just Giving page has now been set up and anyone can contribute at https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/warmuphubs

Supporters can additionally aid our efforts by volunteering to help out with the schemes.

If you can offer your services in any way, we would greatly appreciate your help as we come together for the people of Blackpool.

For further information or to find out how you can get involved and volunteer, please email [email protected] or call 01253 348691.

Working with a full range of Blackpool residents from two-year-olds to senior adults in the later stages of life, BFCCT provides a diverse range of programmes to increase social inclusion opportunities and to improve physical fitness, health, and education.

Thanks to support from the National Lottery Community Fund, BFCCT is working in partnership with Blackpool Food Bank’s Big Food Truck to provide additional support this winter.

We are providing an additional food collection point based in our North Stand Community Hub at the Blackpool FC stadium.

Food collections will be available there on Tuesdays from 2pm-4pm, starting next week. We will be offering family food bags for £5 and single bags at £3.

For full details on the schemes and programmes available from Blackpool FC Community Trust, visit www.bfcct.co.uk or follow BFCCT on social media.