Football can be an escape
Dawn Middleton says one of the most rewarding aspects of her job is helping people to forget the troubles of everyday life for a couple of hours.
So she wants to make it as easy as possible for that to happen for those who are in need and to get people more involved.
She said:“We work with Maggie’s Centre, the Elizabeth Montgomery House at Monklands, and we support their prostate group.
“We give them tickets to matches, they come and do walking football with us... it’s about being there for people when they’re most in need.
“One of the things I’ve learned from working with Maggie’s is that when you go from being employed, if you or your partner is diagnosed with cancer, you can go on to benefits – so the £24 to come and watch a match on a Saturday is suddenly a luxury you don’t have.
“But those two hours can be invaluable for someone, so that’s a fantastic project that we do – because of the partnerships rather than us, I must add!
“I have been very fortunate to work with local MSP Marion Fellows, who has invited us along to the Poverty Action Group, which is great for finding local partners that we can work with to target those most in need.
“We can never move away from the fact that Motherwell is a working class area, we’re a working class club, and that’s what we need to be. We want to be the heart of our community, to be doing things for our people.
“We don’t want to be charging £200-odd for a week’s activity and we don’t want to be exclusive.
“I want to really understand the people that we need to work with and find out what we can do for them.
“What we always say is that the Community Trust and Motherwell Football Club are about so much more than 3pm on a Saturday.
“It’s a part of what we do and it will always be the biggest part. But there are people out there who we can do something for, people who can come and be part of it – whether ago to pitch up to football has gone, we need to make this club mean something to people.
“Twenty-four pounds is a lot of money to pay to get into a football match. But Stephen Robinson has done a phenomenal job since coming here and people see a team fighting for everything on the park.
“We want people to see that not only are those players giving their all for this club, we’re giving our all to make sure YOU feel part of Motherwell FC. That’s really important.
“Some might not want to come to a game on a Saturday, so what can we do to make you feel part of your club?”
We want to be the heart of our community, to be doing things for our people