Shropshire Star

Shrewsbury Town’s social work must be ‘meaningful’

Shrewsbury Town's head of community Jamie Edwards is keen to see the first-team players engaging in ‘meaningful’ work in the area and avoiding internet ‘fads’.

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The coronavirus outbreak has shut down football matches until at least April 30, meaning many clubs have given players time off or training regimes to complete at home during isolation.

There have been several viral videos taking over the internet in the meantime, with the ‘toilet roll challenge’ seeing many well-known figures attempting to do 10 keepy-uppys – but Salop’s community head Edwards believes the time could be better spent.

“We’ve got through the shock of the first week and we’re looking now at making something positive,” he said. “I was really keen not to be the football club that had their players kicking a toilet roll, those fads will soon start to wear off, and we need to make sure our players are engaging in some meaningful activities. Helping families and the vulnerable to make a real difference.”

Meanwhile, the coronavirus pandemic has created many problems for people looking to work from home and although it has been challenging for Town’s community department, Edwards insists the team are putting in the hours to ensure all of their ‘participants’ don’t miss out.

“The staff have worked really hard. We started by ensuring they were safe first and foremost and then the participants,” he added. “We knew it was coming, we’re quite fortunate that it was a phased approach from the government.

“We tried to mobilise the staff and make sure they had the tools to work remotely and then we looked at our vulnerable, disabled and elderly participants.

“We’re getting online resources for them, but more importantly, giving them a call one or twice a week to make sure they’re not isolated and they have the support they want.

“We’re currently looking at how we get food to one of our participants that lives on his own and is a bit frightened to go out.

“If we can help in any way we can, then we will.

“It’s also important to keep them active and give them ideas.

“There’s been some Facebook groups appear and funny videos, such as armchair aerobics - making sure we keep engaged with them.

“With our disabled participants we’re putting videos together so you can continue to do something in their back garden.

“If we can keep them active and keep them engaged with Shrewsbury Town, that’s fantastic.

“The rest of the team are working on the shrews@home project, which is something that will get bigger I hope.

“It’s about bringing families together and making a positive from a really negative situation.”