Regular visitors to the Nigel Eady County Ground who sit in the Arkell’s Stand will have spotted the domed pitch of the Nigel Eady Training Centre looming over the cricket club.
They might have walked past the John Trolloppe statue on their way to the turnstiles. Those sat in the Don Rogers have probably felt their minds wander during a drab 0-0 and looked over at the 4G astroturf pitch behind the ground over at Foundation Park.
It is easy to think you know what the Swindon Town Community Foundation is and the work that they do, but on a recent visit to speak with Head of Foundation Shane Hewlett and Strategic and Partnership Manager Darren Howell, it became clear how much more goes on in those buildings in the shadow of the County Ground.
On that sunny day, around 200 children were attending their summer camps, practising their football skills spread across three different pitches, and we got lost in conversation about the regular coffee morning for people with dementia and the fitness sessions for older people looking to stay active.
The Foundation has a valuable working relationship with the Football Club, in particular with Sotiris Caldelis, Alisha Henry, and Vicky Eyles, who provide support for all cross-organisation initiatives. They also have wonderful partnerships with Trust STFC and the Official Supporters Trust, who are always willing to support where they can. However, what many people do not realise is that the Foundation is financially independent from the football club.
Being a charity, the leadership team have worked tirelessly over the past few decades, raising funds which have been used to develop a base - Foundation Park as well as the all-weather pitch and, more recently, the Nigel Eady covered dome – all of which are used to engage with 30,000 people every year.
During my discussion with Hewlett and Howell, it became clear that even attempting to sum up all of their work would be next to impossible in one article. Unless it was just one long bullet-point list, or just one large dot covering the entirety of Swindon and the surrounding areas to demonstrate where people had felt their impact.
Funded by sponsorship, fundraising, donations, and community activities, it is hard to think of a charity with such a breadth of activities. The partnership with the club sees most elements of it revolve around football, but whilst Town toil away at the professional level, the Community Foundation celebrates football at practically every other level.
The fantastic facilities, which are consistently chosen over their counterparts in Reading or Bristol to host regional events by the Premier League, play host to young children just starting out playing in their holiday camps, Centres of excellence, Girls Emerging Talent Pathways through to the 6th form education programme ‘C6’ run in conjunction with Commonweal School, in which they have been regular national champions across girls and boys in recent years, multiple sessions for those with disabilities and adults aged up to 65 hoping to stay fit in the Football Fans in Training programme.
But even that would only cover the playing of sport, missing out things like the Memory Café support group for people with dementia, the Project Me mentoring programme for children with mental health issues, their projects in Zambia, and there is even a programme in collaboration with Swindon Town to help rehabilitate young people who would otherwise get banning orders from the stadium being developed right now.
So, there is a lot more going on at the heart of the land left behind by Thomas Goddard to be used for sport than you might have thought, and chances are there is something you could be getting involved in.
To find out more about what goes on at Foundation Park, take a look at their website www.stfcfoundation.com or pop in and have a chat with some of the staff.
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