"Community is absolutely essential to what we do" - Chasetown expanding holiday clubs

The Scholars received £2,500 from the Trident Community Foundation – a fund established by league sponsors Pitching In to support community projects for clubs at Steps 3 and 4 of the non-league pyramid.

The plan is to use the money to buy equipment to help expand their holiday club provision, which is already popular in the local area.

General manager Peter Bailey revealed the equipment will also be used across various other projects at the club, with a focus on increasing participation across all facets of the club’s youth section.

“We are committed to expanding the holiday club provision but the next thing is about wider plans,” he said. “Once we have got the equipment, we can deploy it in lots of different areas and projects.

“We were begging and borrowing but now we have got our own stuff we can go into the community and do more. The grant has freed up that bit of capital, so we can do more projects and deliver more.

“We can actually start delivering and we can make an immediate impact. The money is brilliant, it has come at just the right time.”

The Trident Community Foundation was set up in 2020 and has since awarded more than £600,000 to support hundreds of new and existing projects across the country.

This latest round of grant money will help augment Chasetown’s already impressive community offering, something Bailey believes should be at the heart of any non-league club.

“We’re a football club but if you’re a community club, the important part is the community,” he added. “We are really lucky to get attendances of 5-600 people at Step 4 every game. To actually have that community engagement is crucial, it is the lifeblood of the club.

“We do as much as we possibly can in the community. Community is absolutely essential to what we do.”

The Scholars, who play in the Pitching In Northern Premier League West Division, offer sessions for all walks of life in Staffordshire, including girls' football, disability football and ‘warm welcomes’ for the elderly every Friday.

They have even hired a new community project officer, Chris Price, to help expand their offering even further.

“Over the last few years, we’ve undergone quite a significant growth,” explained Bailey. “We had new owners come in and we now have 86 teams, with 1,400 people playing football here every single week.

“Over the last 18 months, we have started to do much more going into the local community.

“We host a group on a Friday morning for elderly people, we do baby groups, holiday camps.

“The club has got the biggest disability football pathway in the whole of Staffordshire, we have got a female pathway from the age of four right through to adult.

“We are just making strides everywhere and the club is expanding massively.

“We see a huge impact. Our warm welcome we have on a Friday morning, it is not just an opportunity to deal with loneliness and isolation. It is also an opportunity for some of those people to deal with mental health struggles, cost of living issues.

“We’ve got a door that’s always open to people.”

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