Community Engagement
Football has its own community
A community made up of players, spectators and volunteers of all ages, races, religions, and backgrounds. All are united by the beautiful game and the sense of belonging that it brings.
Football also has an extraordinary power to reach out and touch the lives of more than just those within its community. It can unite local communities by promoting cross-cultural collaboration. It can help celebrate diversity and promote equality.
It can offer a safe place for individuals and groups to develop and grow either individually or collectively.
It has the power to add new and additional strengths and make local communities better for everyone.
That sense of togetherness is essential to running an effective and sustainable Club, but more importantly, becoming part of a well-connected and well-supported community.
Great community engagement is a two-way process. It is not just about finding out what individuals, groups and organisations are local to you and what assets they have. It is about your Club identifying its’ own assets, being clear on future ambitions and determining how you can play a role within the wider community. When assets and ambitions are identified and more importantly aligned, new doors open and opportunities can arise.
The building and forming of relationships can and will take a long time so perseverance is key!
Community connection truly flourishes when relationships are built, and trust is developed. This can and will take time to grow. By having meaningful engagement and immersing yourself within your local community, regularly, you can begin to build the right foundations to create and nurture relationships.
Remember when everyone comes together, communities achieve more!
new members
Clubs should take time to reflect on how they currently recruit new members and promote their opportunities to consider whether this is the right approach to reach new audiences. In addition to this by using the information obtained in step 2 in identifying the current demographic make-up of the Club’s membership Clubs should be able to identify areas where they want to make improvements.
recruitment
host a club recruitment day
Remember community engagement is a two-way process so you will have to reach out to your community.
Does the Club work closely with local community groups or with local schools?
You may decide to organise an event (which may be an invite event to certain groups or an open invitation to the whole community) or link into an existing event/activity taking place in your area to engage with your community.
Alternatively you may wish to target certain groups such as older people or the LGBTQ+ community by attending activities they attend such as a pride parade.
engaguement
reaching out to your community
Has the Club considered how its current reputation will land with different audiences? Has the Club engaged with different community groups for feedback about this?
A Club’s relationship with its local community will be vital here and utilising digital media platforms can be a key tool. This method of community engagement is beginning to supersede the more traditional ways of connecting with individuals, community groups and organisations, not only for the speed of connection and sharing of information but the power it can have in reaching a more diverse and wider audience.
Exploring the variety of ways community engagement can be delivered digitally will help bring you modern and exciting ways to connect with new and existing audiences.
Considering all of these points will support Clubs with being able to reach out to and recruit members from diverse communities that they are not currently engaging.
Now you have an increased understanding of your Club and local community from conducting an Equality & Diversity Audit and from using the ‘Community Mapping Toolkit’ in Step 2 you can begin to determine who to build relationships with first and write this into your Action Plan.
Remember community engagement is a two-way process so you will have to reach out to your community.
For Further guidance on community engagement download the Top Tips for Meaningful Engagement toolkit.
