Matt Parish has explained how the 'crest' of Liverpool Football Club continues to be used by the LFC Foundation on a daily basis to help spread positive messages to the younger generation.
The LFC Foundation delivers community programmes across the Liverpool city region and beyond, engaging children, young people and families in communities everyday. To date, the organisation offers over 35 programmes, supporting over 50,000 people in the process.
The latest of those events came on Wednesday when SC Johnson, Liverpool, and the LFC Foundation hosted 400 Merseyside school children at Anfield. The day was filled with educational activities that aimed to improve sustainability and recycling practices amongst youngsters, delivered via charity Ocean Generation’s 'Ocean Academy'.
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The aim of the event was to tap into the next generation and encourage the best and latest sustainability practices at a young age. This event was part of SCJ and Liverpool’s ongoing 'Goals for Change' partnership, announced last September, which is a joint effort that aims to help fans understand what they can do to help create a more sustainable future, urging them to reduce plastic waste both on and off the pitch.
“We were lucky enough to work with SC Johnson, who are a club and foundation partner, over the summer on a programme called Big Red Summer," Parish, CEO of LFC Foundation, told the ECHO.
“It was brilliant for us because it enabled us to build on what we already do, which was providing free, fun activities for young people.
“But this time, not only did we do it in the Liverpool city region, but we did it in Dublin and Belfast. We also built into that environment message which was great.
“This is a continuation of that. I think it is 200 kids from local schools in workshops. But not being talked to, it is about working with them and getting a spark of social action in their minds.”
As well as taking part in a variety of exercises, the school children were also able to meet David James and Glen Johnson and have a photo with them inside Anfield. And Parish believes the use of Liverpool's ground gives youngsters a 'spark'.
He said: “That is a massive tool in our armoury if you like, we are fortunate enough to have a learning space here that overlooks the pitch, which we use Monday to Friday all year.
“Bringing some young people and school pupils here in the week, to be able to see the pitch takes them out of their normal environment.
“It gives them that spark. I have always spoken passionately about it. Our staff aren’t better than teachers in schools. They are brilliant and that is what they do."
Parish then continued on the work the LFC Foundation do, by adding: “Every club has a foundation or a community programme in some shape or form, the way we choose to do it we are really fortunate we get funding from the Premier League and that enables us to run a free programme in all the primary schools in L4, L5 and L6.
“Primary stars, we choose to fund that ourselves to run it for primary schools in Kirkby, and again it is getting health, sport, fitness, football, numeracy and literacy messages across.
“We are now working with something like 24 of the high schools across the Liverpool city region with an LFC Foundation member of staff in there once a week working with young people, who might be at risk of getting excluded for a number of reasons, so again it is not to say that it is better than what teachers do, it is not, it is just different."
The latest edition of the LFC Foundation legends charity match takes place this weekend with a Liverpool side taking on Manchester United at Anfield. To date, the legends charity matches – which have included games against Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, AC Milan and Barcelona – have raised a total of £4.5million.
And speaking ahead of the game, Parish has explained how the funds raised from the games have not only supported the great work of the LFC Foundation and its community programmes, but a number of other fantastic local charities in the Liverpool city region.
“I have been fortunate enough to do this job at three great clubs, but Liverpool is arguably on a different level,” he said. “We have got a legends game coming up on Saturday against Manchester United and it is our second one of the year.
“All the proceeds from that game on Saturday will be spent in the Liverpool city region. The funds generated enable us to do work and we are also passionate about being able to fund partners as well.
“So some of the proceeds from Saturday we are going to work with Radio City Cash for Kids. The last time we did it in 2020 we were able to fund 19 other charities working across the region, who support around 30,000 young people in addition to the work we do.
“It just gives us that extra ability to support more people, which is so important. Using the power of the LFC crest and family, look what happened in Covid, we had fans raising to support others.
“We had the Norwegian supporters group fundraising the best part of £100,000 for us to distribute to food pantries across the city.”
It has now been more than six years since Dave Kelly, Ian Byrne MP and Robbie Daniels set up Fans Supporting Foodbanks, with the distinctive purple collection van now a permanent fixture outside both Goodison Park and Anfield on matchdays.
And with the cost of living crisis continuing to impact people across Merseyside, fans are being regularly encouraged to donate non-perishable or a variety of dry products, such as rice or pasta; tinned foods including fruit and steamed puddings, or non-perishable packets such as breakfast cereals, biscuits, long life milk, coffee, fruit juice and sugar, as well as toiletries and children’s nappies.
And while acknowledging that times are set to get even tougher for many heading into the winter months, Parish believes the work supporters across the UK do shows the power and the importance of football.
“Unfortunately, it is only going to get worse heading into the winter months,” he said. "If you asked anyone working at a food bank they wouldn’t want them to be in existence and it is sad that they have to be.
“The club, and Everton, both have a long history of working alongside Fans Supporting Foodbanks, and the brilliant thing is it is fan action. Fans coming together to do that.
“If I am right in saying this, I saw the Celtic vs Rangers derby the other week and there were Fans Supporting Foodbanks there.
“I think it is sad that it is needed, but it shows the importance of football and the fabric of football and it is why foundations and community programmes do as much as they can to support their local community.”
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