Attendees engage during tailored roundtables and presentations
EFDN and several clubs and partner organisations took centre stage on day two of the 2020 EFDN Conference with presentations on a range of topics related to community and social responsibility (CSR) programmes in football. EFDN CEO Hubert Rovers kicked off the day’s proceedings with a talk on the Healthy Football League – an app-based competition encouraging football fans of all ages to make healthy lifestyle choices and compete against fans from other clubs. Together with their fans, the clubs strive to become the healthiest club in the city, country and Europe. Any fan with a phone using Android or iOS can register and start scoring points for their club.
This was followed by nine interactive roundtable sessions on a variety of issues such as the impact of COVID-19 on CSR and the sport of football. Disability football; total access to sport; tackling racism and discrimination; fundraising and EU grant writing were also discussed. The other topics discussed in the networking roundtables included monitoring and evaluation and the theory of change; communication and storytelling; CSR strategy development; and youth voices and youth panels. Amy Wilson, the Fans Liaison and Access Officer at the Centre for Access to Football in Europe (CAFE) presented the Total Access roundtable alongside Kathryn Albany-Ward from the Tackling Colour Blindness in Sport (TACBIS) programme. The two spoke on ways to increase access to and participation for all persons and especially those with various disabilities and impairments.
“There’s an app in development for diagnosing colour blindness that will be trialled with Randers FC players,” said Albany-Ward, of one of the ways the programme seeks to include those affected by colour blindness in football.
Livestreams by various EFDN members featured in the mid-morning and early afternoon sessions. Saints Foundation presented on refocusing their strategy and purpose; Upshot on monitoring, evaluation and learning; while Aston Villa gave a talk on disability football. Maria Valles from Barca Foundation gave a presentation on their work related to the sustainable development goals (SGDs). The afternoon session consisted of four more livestreams and a talk on the partnership between EFDN and Sphero on how to integrate CSR, football and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics).
The EFDN Conference concludes tomorrow with handing of the More Than Football Award Award 2020 to the best CSR-project as chosen by EFDN members.
