Coming of age for Shrewsbury Town In The Community

Shrewsbury Town In The Community, the club's registered charity, are to let their hair down tomorrow night as they celebrate their 21st year, which will kick into action in 2017.

The organisation, formed in 1996, aim to work with each and every member of the Shropshire community to improve everything from sporting participation, youngsters' education and social care for the older generation to aiding those with disability.

Jamie Edwards, who has been head of the community set-up for three seasons, praised his devoted band of staff and volunteers – who will all meet at Greenhous Meadow to celebrate their achievements.

The Community released its annual review, which detailed developments from the 2015/16 season, and Edwards hailed the impact of a charity that is accessible to all.

"It's a fantastic effort from our staff and volunteers working with people from the ages of four up to 94," he said.

"The annual review shows a few case studies of people on our courses and projects showing where they have come from and where they have progressed to.

"One great stat highlighted is that since the charity started in 2008 we have invested over £1.4 million into the local community, and from a standing start that is something that we and the football club are very proud of.

"We've hit some key figures and some eye-opening figures. We have 7,000 unique participants, over 800 young students received our literacy programme 'Reading the Game' and over 2,400 hours were delivered in community settings."

The annual review details the full spectrum of community welfare carried out by In The Community.

After school clubs, soccer schools, skills centres and mini-kickers are just some of the projects that youngsters across the county can join to learn and make new friends.

Activities don't stop at football, with Tri-golf, tag rugby and the like also on offer.

The community programme was ranked in third place out of 72 Football League clubs by the NCS (National Citizens Service) in 2015 and provided opportunities for 15 to 17-year-olds to learn vital skills for later life.

Mental health is also supported. A 'Heads Up' drop-in session helps members of the community meet and enjoy the company of those in a similar position, while 'Meadow Memories' is a project in place to help cater to those with dementia and other illnesses.

Greenhous Meadow is regularly buzzing with youngsters on a match day, with the club's Hub centre packed out with different activities.

And Edwards reminded supporters not to be fooled into thinking key work takes place only when there's a Town match.

"When people are in the Hub on matchdays they probably don't see half of those out there working," he added. "We are seven days a week now, there's something on every single day.

"We start at 8am with breakfast clubs and we finish at 9 or 10pm at night with inclusion programmes on council estates across Shropshire.

"We do hit the full remit of women, girls and disabled participants – we have more than 80 disabled participants in a weekly programme on a Monday at Sundorne Sports Village.

"It is fantastic. It's something that we have lots of volunteers on and it's grown and grown. We're lucky enough to have received more than £55,000 from the Wembley National Stadium Trust to continue that for the next three years."

On the evening of celebration tomorrow night, which will bring staff and volunteers together to celebrate the charity's performance, he added: "It's brilliant. No day is ever the same.

"People ask me what I do – well, we have our celebration evening tomorrow and it'll be quite nice to bring people and show lots of videos highlighting what we do for the community and for me, on a selfish point of view, I can explain to people 'this is what we do'."

As part of the annual review, chairman Roland Wycherley added: "I have always believed that a football club has a bigger responsibility above and beyond a scoreline.

"Once again the past 12 months has seen an increase in the people we engage through a diverse range of projects."