City in the Community (CITC) continued its mission to empower healthier lives through football during the 2023-24 season.
The Healthy Goals initiative was a key focus this season, with local schools reaping the reward of CITC’s commitment to regenerate multi-sport pitches.
Thanks to support from the Club and its fans, CITC raised £250,000 to upgrade pitches at five Greater Manchester schools: Ravensbury Community School, St Wilfred’s Primary, Southern Cross SEN, Ashbury Meadow Primary and Holy Name Primary.
Across the five new sites, more than 1,500 local children will directly benefit from the Healthy Goals investment.
Another focus for CITC was the delivery of the City Mentoring, City Ready and City Thrive programmes.
City Mentoring provides a bespoke mentoring approach for 8-to-18-year-olds who are at risk of violence or criminality, as well as other young people who might need extra support or guidance due to life circumstances. Over the last season, 153 sessions were delivered with an average of 8.5 hours of contact time per participant.
Support is provided through direct referrals from partner organisations including Greater Manchester Police and the Youth Offending Service.
The City Ready programme runs weekly at His Majesty’s Prison Hindley and focuses on mental wellbeing and employability through a combination of classroom-based workshops and outdoor physical activities.
Participants are also offered three months of bespoke mentoring to support their reintegration into the community, with 50 participants receiving over 200 hours of dedicated support.
City Thrive was introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic and continued to support the mental wellbeing of local young people this year. Almost 1,000 participants benefitted from an average of six hours of contact time to support their mental health.
CITC delivers its programmes to thousands of people across Greater Manchester
Source: City in the Community
As ever, there was supercharged activity around the Club’s Christmas campaign, which raised a record-breaking £230,000 for CITC.
In December, the men’s first team players visited patients at the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, while the members of the women’s team visited Francis House Children’s Hospice. The charity also hosted a free Christmas Festival for 800 pupils and teachers. Throughout the campaign, CITC donated more than 1,800 gifts to youngsters in Manchester.
CITC donations also helped to fund 3,000 food parcels at four local food banks.
Launched by CITC in 2021 as part of Dementia Action Week, the ReminisCITY programme creates a dementia safe environment for fans.
This season, there was a very special and historic moment on the final day of the Premier League campaign when Michael Crowther, a CITC ReminisCITY participant, presented the 2023-24 Premier League trophy alongside former player Paul Dickov.
Crowther, from Reddish, has been attending ReminisCITY sessions for several years. One of his favourite City stories is the famous second division play-off final against Gillingham in 1999, which made sharing this historic trophy presentation with Dickov – who scored the 95th minute equaliser at Wembley on that day – even more special.
More broadly, the Club’s charity delivered a range of initiatives and programmes aligned with its three main pillars – Healthy People, Healthy Futures and Healthy Communities.
Thousands of local people in Greater Manchester interacted with CITC as the charity sought to achieve tangible and meaningful impact through sustained, regular and high-quality contact time between staff and participants.
