Cobblers announce scheme to help local community during coronavirus pandemic

Cobblers will show their support to the Northants community during the coronavirus outbreak.

Nearly 3,000 people have tested positive for coronavirus in England so far, including 15 from Northamptonshire, while many businesses have been hit hard as the government outlines a series of measures to contain the spread of the virus.

The Cobblers, who face six weeks without a game due to the suspension of the EFL season, will also suffer financially but they are nonethless keen to show their support in the local community.

Chairman Kelvin Thomas said: "We are exceptionally proud of the work we do day in, day out in the local community as we are of our Community Trust and as a club at the very heart of our community, it is only right we do all we can to support as many people as possible at this difficult time.

"No praise can be too high for the club and Community Trust's staff who are offering these fantastic services to help those in need of our support.

"If anyone feels we can be of support or they need the club's assistance, please do email [email protected] as we are working to bring additional measures of support in over the coming weeks.

"Football may have temporarily stopped on the pitch but we have ramped up our work in other areas and we will be doing all we can to help and support those in Northampton and the surrounding area who may be feeling vulnerable and in need of assistance."

A club statement explained:

"The following work is being undertaken:

1. The club's Community Trust have set up a phone call based befriending service for older and vulnerable people in the community - initially we have been engaging with our current programme participants from Extra Time Hubs (older adults) and Every Player Counts (disability & mental health) to test but we are going to ramp this up to the disability football club and the club's fanbase (where we have details) in the coming days. We'll check in and see what support is needed and arrange daily/weekly calls where preferred. This could be a general chat or signposting to information, we will support where we can.

2. We have set up a free mental health first aid hotline for teachers in our partner schools to support and provide them with coping strategies at this very uncertain time. Our partner schools have been advised of this and can arrange call slots with our qualified mental health first aid instructor. For more information on this please contact [email protected].

3. We are supporting our network of mental health first aiders who we have trained over the past few months by sending out tips and advice for supporting other staff within their school or business. Their role as the appointed person for wellbeing and mental health support is very much needed right now, particularly supporting staff remaining in schools working with vulnerable and key worker children. A 'toolkit' of ideas is being provided to help deal with stress, uncertainty, anxiety, resilience and coping strategies.

4. We have offered our spare coaching staff to attend for additional hours (where we can) in our partner schools free of charge from normal contract costs to support the gaps and issues they are facing with staffing.

5. We are developing online content to support families, older adults and vulnerable people to stay mentally and physically active over the coming weeks. Further details will be shared shortly.

6. We are now delivering our Fit Cobblers (men’s health) programme digitally using Google hangouts for the participants to check in and continue the healthy lifestyle programme on a weekly basis. So far the group have lost almost 50kg between them and we are keen to help them to continue on their journey.

We are continuously looking at how we can support and these are just the first things we’ve identified as being able to support with. We ask the community to please also share ideas of how we can further support by emailing [email protected]."