REDS ARE HAPPY TO HELP OUT COLLEGE
UXBRIDGE chairman Mark Bantock is delighted that vital new funding will allow his club to continue their invaluable work with a local special education college. Uxbridge are one of more than 40 clubs to have received a grant from the Trident Community Foundation, a fund set up by league title sponsors Pitching In to help support non-capital community projects. The extra income will go a long way as the Reds continue their partnership with Orchard Hill College, which gives young adults with special needs the opportunity to broaden their skillset on club grounds, driving them closer towards self-sufficiency. Whether it’s working behind the bar, helping out in the kitchen or cutting the grass, the Reds provide students with a wealth of different experiences, helping them get integrated into the football family. “It’s something we wanted to do because it’s the right thing to do,” Bantock said. “It helps the community at large around the football club.
“When we took the scheme, it wasn’t because we thought we might get funding for it. It was purely the right thing to do. “We’ve been very well regarded from the college for what we do, how we look after the students and how much they enjoy coming here.”
The students of Orchard Hill have become part of the furniture at Honeycroft, accepted and recognised by the fans, players and staff who come by.
The scheme has been such a success that even after graduating from college, some have continued to do their bit for the club off their own back.
“Anyone who visits the club has an interaction with them,” Bantock added. “We’ve got one of the lads, Jack – he’s basically finished his college, but he still comes to the club once a week off of his own volition on a Monday, just because he loves it.
“We obviously got to know him, he got to know everyone at the club and he now cycles here and just volunteers to do whatever he can do, just because he likes being in and around the club.
“That’s a lovely, endearing item of gratitude and makes you think that it must have been of benefit to them – that they still want to come back when they’re outside the remits of the actual scheme.”
It is a project that’s more than earned the support of the TCF, the groundbreaking initiative sees grants of between £1,000-5,000 given to launch new or expand existing community-based scheme and has rewarded more than £430,000 to clubs across Steps 3 and 4 since its launch in 2020. Bantock has emphasised the importance of grants to non-league clubs, with additional financial support paramount to sustaining their long-standing support of the community.
“They’re absolutely invaluable,” he said. “We’re a Step 4 non-league football club and it’s very, very difficult to make ends meet with the challenges and the economic situation in the country.
“You’re not sheltered from that because you’re a football club. Energy bills, the costs of everything are soaring.
“We do what we do because it’s the right thing to do for the community. But the benefit of receiving that money does mean that it would never come under any sort of threat.”