Everton in the Community has won Gold in the Best Foundation category at the Corporate Engagement Awards 2021.
The annual awards ceremony, now in its 11th year, recognises the most successful and innovative corporate partnerships and sponsorships, and the communication strategies around those collaborations.
Everton’s official charity took home the top honour for its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, in partnership with Relish Liverpool and CreativeHUT.
Delivered collaboratively by Everton in the Community and Everton Football Club, alongside their corporate partners, the ‘Blue Family’ campaign supported more than 31,500 vulnerable and at-risk individuals and families across Liverpool last year, following the outbreak of COVID-19 in the UK.
Assistance included providing essential food parcels, items and clothing; financial assistance for prescriptions and medical support; vouchers to pay for utility bills and mobile phone credit; as well as support for mental and physical health.
As part of the campaign, Liverpool-based catering business, Relish, provided 11, 000 essential food parcels for local people, whilst CreativeHUT and LEGO® Education launched the #BuildingCommunitiesTogether campaign, where young people could win limited edition LEGO® kits in reward for their community involvement.
Relish has a strong reputation as a community-focused business and its founder, Chris Foulkes, had existing links to Everton in the Community through his father Bobby – a long-standing member of the charity’s Pass on the Memories programme, which supports those living with dementia. After Bobby sadly passed away due to COVID-19 in April 2020, Relish was keen to pay tribute to him by supporting those hardest hit by the pandemic and the most vulnerable and disadvantaged people across the city.
Relish deployed its team to prepare and cook daily healthy, nutritious meals and work with Everton in the Community to personally deliver – not only aiding health and wellbeing but combatting social isolation by offering a friendly face and a regular chat. Over 11,000 quality fresh meals – equating to £41,000 worth of food – were donated by Relish during the period of April 2020 to December 2020, helping to support thousands of local people and families.
CreativeHUT – a STEAM Education resource and service provider with a mission to help children and adults become passionate about education – also came together with Everton in the Community during lockdown, alongside LEGO and LEGO Education, to celebrate the behaviour and achievements of children and young people during such challenging times by launching an innovative competition, #BuildingCommunitiesTogether.
As part of the Blue Family campaign, parents, teachers, family members and friends were invited to nominate a young person they knew aged 16 and under who had shown exemplary behaviour, resilience and understanding during the extremely difficult period of lockdown and/or an act of kindness which has had a lasting effect on an individual or a community. Winners were presented with limited-edition LEGO kits and acknowledged on Everton’s media channels for their courageous work.
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Lesley Beattie, Director of Development at Everton in the Community, said: “We are delighted to receive this prestigious award and be recognised for the work and impact we have delivered with the support of CreativeHUT and Relish during an extremely difficult time.
“We work with many corporate partners and the social value this provides for our communities and us as a charity is priceless. We are looking forward to continuing working with Relish and CreativeHUT, and all our corporate partners, to deliver more lifesaving and life changing projects going forward.”
