Community Payback teams help local football clubs reach their goals
Community Payback teams in East Ayrshire have been busy helping to maintain local football clubs and making sure that stadiums continue to meet the high standards set by the Scottish Football Association.
The COVID-19 pandemic has obviously presented many challenges, but maintenance work being carried out by the Community Payback teams has allowed the football clubs to continue to carry out essential repairs such as painting goal posts, pay booths, dugouts, changing rooms, gates and fences. The teams have also been cutting grass, scraping moss, weeding, litter picking and mending privacy netting surrounding pitches to maximise the safety of those who use the facilities. Bonnyton Thistle, Cumnock Juniors, Glenafton Athletic and Lugar Boswell are all involved with the Community Payback Scheme.
It was the pandemic that prompted the Council’s Events and Resilience Management Officer to contact the Community Payback team to ask them to get involved with the clubs to help with general maintenance and essential repairs at no additional expense to the clubs. This is due to the football clubs’ charitable status and ‘community engagement projects’ that support wellbeing, combat social isolation and promote inclusive community programmes. Community Payback is all about supporting these foundations by adding value to the work that is carried out by these social enterprise organisations. Community Payback hours are a way for service users to make reparation to their communities in a constructive and suitably demanding way whilst providing work placements that are local, worthwhile and of benefit to the wider community.
The football clubs all have a shared aim of improving the health and wellbeing of our communities to help people to live longer, healthier, happier and more fulfilling lives. To achieve this, they are committed to creating an environment which is safe and welcoming for everyone. The community engagement projects that they deliver are funded by external bodies, and club community trusts work in partnership with a range of external partners to carry out initiatives. The clubs also work in partnership with the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service to deliver fire safety and defibrillator training on a continual basis. Everyone who takes part in the training receives a certificate to recognise their achievement.
Other community work being carried out by clubs includes the Townhead Strollers receiving CPR training from the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and competing in a charity football tournament which raised money for the family of three year-old Malin Mackay who has rare lymphoblastic leukaemia.
Councillor Jim McMahon, Cabinet Member for Social Care, Mental Wellbeing and Addiction and Recovery, said: “Our Community Payback teams have been doing incredible work at football clubs across East Ayrshire and my thanks go to them for working hard to ensure the safety of everyone who visits the stadiums.
“Through them, as well as the football clubs’ dedicated committee members and volunteers, the clubs are making a difference to so many people in the communities of East Ayrshire and allowing them to continue to carry out important community engagement projects.”
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