Briton Ferry Llansawel AFC are committed to being more than just a football club.
In 2020 the club created its own Community Charter and group named ‘Community Reds’, a voluntary organisation within our football club that is dedicated to providing for our local community.
The main focus of Community Reds is to provide for our Community through Recreation, Education, Development and Support, with no discrimination to beneficaries in line with the clubs Equality Charter.
In its first year during the Coronavirus, Community Reds started the Reds Raffle enabling the club to donate over 7k to support local charities, organsiations and individulas in need as well as providing vital equipment for our teams within the football club.
In the same year after successfully acquiring funding from The National Lottery Awards for All the club aimed to create Wales’ first ‘Dementia Friendly’ Football Club by partnering with local charity Me, Myself and I the project allowed 20 club volunteers to attend Dementia awareness training and become Dementia friends. As well as this we worked with the charity to ensure the club was safe and accessible for those who have memory loss and or physical disabilities by investing in better signage, accessibility and awareness throughout the Old Road ground. This work continues and we are proud to be able to keep learning and providing a safe environment for people who may have physical or mental disabilities to attend events and matches at our facility. This project provided personal development for our volunteers as well as developing a strong link with a local charity.
In the last 2 years the work has continued to strengthen the clubs community links and we have enjoyed a number of funded recreational projects such as the NPT PASS Summer of Fun and the Winter of Wellbeing schemes that saw over 200 children enjoy free activities and food under the supervision of our experienced staff.
Over the last 12 months we have delivered free adult educational courses such as further dementia awareness, mental health awareness, first aid, safeguarding and food hygiene training.
This was provided through partnership funding with Neath CVS with The Community Renewal Fund and we will keep striving to deliver further funded adult training opportunities for people living in our community. to upskill and to further chances of empoyability.
We are also proud to have close links with the probation service helping offenders with their rehabilitation and have provided thousands of hours of supervised unpaid work at our facility.
For the end of 2022 the Old Road will provide a warm space for the Community and provide free hot drinks, soup, a warm space and free wi-fi from 4-7pm every Monday to Thursday from 4-7pm starting December 1st 2022 up until 31st March 2023.
General Manager Stuart Williams said’ The work going on behind the scenes with Community Reds is something we are really proud of; with the backing of the football club and board we will continue to grow and ensure that Briton Ferry Llansawel is more than just a football club. Our aim is to create a community asset that everyone can be proud of while improving the mental and physical health of people living in our area. Keep an eye over the next week for two new exciting projects that I am sure will be welcomed by everyone.’
