Sky Blues in the Community won the Local Hero Award at Festive ‘On Your Doorstep’ community event!
Sky Blues in the Community attended the festive ‘On Your Doorstep‘ community event which returned to the Families for All Hub on Saturday 11 December.
Following on from the successful Community Street Closure event in Foleshill that happened back in the summer, this festive event was warmly welcomed back for a second instalment by residents this Christmas time.
Club mascot Sky Blue Sam and his team at Sky Blues in the Community were excited to be invited back to the event alongside local services and organisations such as the Fire Service and local Police. We were keen to attend with other such organisations to help reconnect with the local community following what has been such a difficult year for everyone.
Families and children loved meeting Sky Blue Sam, one young person of 8 years commented: “Sky Blue Sam was great, he was very cuddly and friendly”.
Whilst a Parent said: “The whole day was fantastic, and we liked the way everyone came and spoke to us, we enjoyed the atmosphere and the great food. It was nice to see all the people who are around to help my children”.
We saw a total of 48 adults and 79 children in attendance throughout the day, all enjoying free sports and wellbeing activities suitable for all ages and abilities, not to mention the face painting, henna artists, library services and freebies which were all on offer.
Cat Watton, Project Officer for Midlands and East commented on the event: “Can I just say congratulations on a really successful event on Saturday. I was amazed at the turn out and we had some really good conversations”.
We really enjoyed meeting everyone in the community and having the chance to help offer support to families who need it and also signpost family members to the numerous projects and programmes we have on offer across Coventry & Warwickshire.
Catherine Aldridge, Public Health at Coventry City Council said: “Public Health is all about tackling inequalities and ensuring every Coventry resident has the opportunity to access services and programmes which help them lead a healthier, happier life. This event achieves this; it brings families together to connect, learn and share experiences whilst accessing much needed support from local services. We very much hope that this type of event can be mirrored across Coventry in 2022.”
Karen is Community Champion at Holbrooks, and her role is to celebrate, support and raise awareness for local charities. As part of the Morrisons Holbrooks Community she was asked to nominate someone for their local hero award. All Morrisons stores have a ‘local hero’ and we were so pleased to hear that Karen nominated ourselves, Sky Blues in the Community.
Whilst attending the event on Saturday 11 December, Karen surprised our Head of Community and former Coventry City footballer Dave Busst and presented Sky Blues in the Community with the ‘local COVID Morrisons hero award’ for our dedication during the pandemic and distributing weekly food packages to the struggling families in Coventry for the Families for All Hub.
Dave Busst responded to the award, commenting: “I was overwhelmed with the nomination, let alone winning the award. Our vision as an organisation is to ‘change lives in our community’ and that will always be what we intend to do. It’s a fantastic job and very rewarding to see the impact we can make on families in our community. On behalf of Sky Blues in the Community, thank you for the award, it’s greatly appreciated to be recognised”.
The idea behind these ‘On Your Doorstop’ events is to help reduce social isolation, reconnect residents to their local communities, and hear what the communities want and need. We are privileged to attend such worthy events like these and look forward to seeing everyone again at the next one.
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