The inspirational work of Aberdeen FC Community Trust (AFCCT) will be highlighted at Pittodrie this weekend with the first AFCCT Trust Day taking place to coincide with Aberdeen’s match against Motherwell on Saturday, March 11.
The Red Army is being urged to show its support for the charity, which delivers health and wellbeing, social inclusion and educational programmes to individuals of all ages across Aberdeen City and Shire, by purchasing a ticket for the match.
Over the past few weeks AFC Community Trust has been engaging with local community groups, schools and partner organisations to promote the occasion with discounted tickets on offer.
Supporters heading to Pittodrie will notice an increased AFCCT presence before, during and after the match with a number of additional activities planned throughout this week.
The Dons will mark the occasion by wearing a one-off shirt which will feature the AFCCT logo. The shirts will subsequently be donated to AFCCT to help Aberdeen Football Club’s partner charity with fundraising efforts.
AFCCT was established as the official charity partner of the Club in 2014 with the aim of providing support and opportunity to change lives for the better throughout the North-east.
The charity engages with more than 12,000 participants each year across 60 programmes and initiatives, with volunteers from the organisation delivering more than 3,500 hours of free community support in their spare time.
Facilities to support the development of the charity are a key element of the Club’s plans to develop a major, multi-million pound football and community sports hub for the North-east of Scotland at Kingsford.
Ally Prockter, Aberdeen FC Community Trust's chief executive, says the charity works with individuals on and off the football pitch.
“Being based at the city’s only top flight football club gives us a great opportunity to engage with the local community and some of that does involve our participants being able to enjoy the Club’s facilities and meet the players, but there’s also much more to it.
“We’re focusing on positive activity, health and wellbeing, equality and inclusion and learning. Since the Trust was formed we’ve been listening to communities across the North-east to find out how we can help them.
“The AFC Community Trust Day is an opportunity for us to highlight the work of the charity to supporters and the wider community, to celebrate what AFCCT has achieved so far and of course to enjoy a great day out at Pittodrie. We’re hoping to see lots of fans, old and new, showing their support this Saturday.”
AFCCT works with North-east local authorities and organisations including Life Changes Trust, NHS Grampian, Sport Aberdeen, Police Scotland, Aberdeen Sports Village and other members for the Active Aberdeen Partnership.
The charity works with people aged from three to 100 years old, including over 65s, disadvantaged children, ethnic and religious minority groups and people living with dementia.
Despite the huge amount of work being delivered to communities around the North-east, AFFCT has very limited facilities at Pittodrie, with Ally citing this as an impediment to the growth of the charity.
“While we’re incredibly grateful to the club for its support, we don’t have sufficient office space at the stadium or any kind of sporting or classroom facilities to call our own which can make delivering projects extremely challenging.
“The opportunity to move to Kingsford is very exciting for us and would provide an inspirational setting to continue our work and reach even more individuals across communities in the North-east.”
Tickets remain available with a 20% discount until match day. For more information please visit afc.co.uk/tickets.