DCCT Annual Report 2022

ANNUAL REPORT

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TABLE OF CONTENTS Using the power of Derby County Football Club to improve lives and communities through sport, physical activity, health and education.

Welcome

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Staff Chart

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A Year in Review

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Supporting Good Health and Wellbeing

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Caring in our Approach

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Collaborative in Our Partnerships

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Developing More Active Communities

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Creating More Meaningful Experiences

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Effectively Fullflling Potential

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Optimising Life Chances

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Taking Pride in Our Work

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Valued by Our Community

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Building Community Pride

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Trust Partners

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A Final Word

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Funding Partners

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REGIONAL COMMUNITY CLUB OF THE SEASON

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DCCT ANNUAL REPORT 2022

Welcome to our 2022 Annual Report, where we refelct on a year when some kind of ‘normality’ returned, our full timetable of activity resumed and a number of exciting new projects were launched.

They say you learn most about the character of any team during times of challenge.

Well, the last 12 months were certainly a major test for Derby County - with administration and, at times, huge uncertainty about the continued existence of the football club.

But how the team at and around Derby County responded.

Chair of Trustees

A depleted squad outperformed all expectations on the pitch. The club staff went above and beyond to keep the business going and the fans came together in their thousands to send a loud, clear message about the importance of the Rams to our community.

But, of course, this is no surprise to us at Derby County Community Trust.

It is this spirit, this power of football, this love for our club, which we leverage to allow us to do our work.

The Derby County brand inspires and excites. It breaks down barriers and it opens up opportunities.

And it allows us to touch the lives of thousands of people every year, helping with their educational needs, to improve their health, offering support, providing purpose or simply extending the hand of friendship.

Now, with new ownership at Derby

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County and the promise of a bright, new future ahead, I am certain that by harnessing the spirit of the past 12 months, we can make an even greater difference.

I am proud to say that we’re now providing early interventions for young people with mental health issues, supporting youngsters who receive free school meals to ensure they are fed during the holidays, supporting vulnerable students to stay in education and we’re taking a lead on long Covid and menopause areas our teams on the ground told us were vital but were not being covered by others.

And these are on top of all the other programmes that we run to support our four pillar objectives of: •

Supporting good health and wellbeing

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Developing more active communities

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Optimising life chances

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And building community pride

I am confident that our work will have impact in each of these areas because we know that, whatever the challenge, when club, trust and community come together, great things can be achieved.

And lives can be changed.

IT IS THIS SPIRIT, THIS POWER OF FOOTBALL, THIS LOVE FOR OUR CLUB WHICH WE LEVERAGE TO ALLOW US TO DO OUR WORK

ANNUAL REPORT 2022

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ANNUAL REPORT 2022

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DCCT ANNUAL REPORT 2022

JAN FEB MAR APR may 8

trust partners We launched our Trust Partners programme, a way for local businesses to engage with and support our projects. To date, 30 local organisations have pledged their commitment!

Rams Family Fund The Rams Family Fund was launched in response to fans wanting to help with . This year, we’ve provided almost 2,000 match tickets as a result of the fund.

Kids Cup Silverhill Primary School represented us in the national round of the EFL Kids Cup in Reading this year, where they bowed out in penalties in the semi-finals.

the derby 10k The Derby 10K returned to its usual slot for the first time since 2019 this year! We welcomed over 3,000 runners to Derby’s streets alongside our main sponsors.

central league win One of our Education teams accepted their trophy for winning the Central league at Wembley, ahead of the League One Play Off Final this May!

jun jul aug sep oct nov dec

rams in kenya Our Rams in Kenya trip returned home after a two week project, and a three year hiatus. Over 60 volunteers made the journey to support our five partner schools.

pride park plod The first ever Pride Park Plod took place in July, where we walked continuous laps of Pride Park for 24 hours! The challenge raised over £3,000 for our projects.

ncs This summer, over 400 young people took part in our NCS projects, volunteering their time and efforts to raise significant funds for various local causes.

annual awards evening Our Annual Awards are always a highlight of the year, and 2022 was no different. We recognised staff, programmes and participants from across our range of projects.

rams family support projects We launched Rams Family Support project in response to the ongoing cost of living. The overarching campaign is aiming to help families with food and fuel costs this winter.

active choices and menopause matters It was a big month for our Health teams as we celebrated 10 years of Active Choices and launched the brand new Menopause Matters programme.

community hub We began the serving our community meals from Harrison’s Hub – our new home at Pride Park Stadium, along with hosting our annual festive food drive.

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By instilling physical activity and an understanding of healthy habits throughout our programme delivery, we aim to support good health and wellbeing across our full range of projects.

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DCCT Anuual Report 2022

Supporting Good Health and Wellbeing Supporting good health and wellbeing remains our foremost priority across many of our programmes. Our delivery across the board is unified by our four key outcomes, where participants’ health and wellbeing is integral to each and every project we run.

This year, we saw a return to a full programme of delivery following various challenges posed by the pandemic across 2020 and 2021.

This meant that our traditional coaching programmes, including Holiday Coaching, Weekend Club and our Talent Identification Programmes (TIPs) were able to resume in full following adapted delivery throughout the previous two years.

Our coaching programme did receive another major setback as the closure of our local footballing facility in the spring meant we had to adapt and move existing sessions. This has impacted the way we deliver, and we have taken the opportunity to focus on delivering with partner schools.

Projects delivered by our Community Coaching strand of our Schools and Coaching department work with primaryaged children to instil a love of physical activity from a young age.

We ensure our programmes are suitable for all abilities to foster enjoyment and encourage participation regardless of skill level. Where appropriate, children who participate in our open access projects are invited to trial for our Talent Identification Programme, which supported almost 200 young players this year.

We continue to work with the Derby County Academy to provide the best possible opportunities for our players, and saw one of our TIPs players join their set up this year.

Within schools, our ever-popular after school clubs continue to engage children in

physical activity, delivered across various sports to provide something for everyone.

We also support participants and their families through our Live IT programme, which received significant additional investment this year in response to the highest ever increase of childhood obesity level from 2019-2020 to 2020-2021 – with obesity prevalence among children living in the most deprived areas being more than double that of those living in the least deprived areas (NHS Digital).

The expansion of the project means we now work with 300 individuals and their families to support wellbeing, encourage healthy habits and most importantly, reduce risk of long-term ill health.

Our commitment to reducing heath inequalities continues into our adult delivery. Our Health and Wellbeing project, delivered through the Derby North Primary Care Network, consisting of six local GP Surgeries, has been extended to the south of the city, where another nine surgeries joined the programme.

Successes of the project have seen participants no longer be at risk of Type 2 diabetes, reduce their weight and become able to participate in adapted exercise whilst living with long-term conditions. We are currently supporting 123 individuals through this programme, in addition to a further 36 males in the county through our Active Supporters project.

of healthy lifestyles on the 12-week programme which runs three times each year.

As a result of successful work across a wide health spectrum, we have also started new projects this year which focus on supporting specific conditions.

One of these key delivery areas is our new Cardiac Rehab programme, which in its infancy has begun to support 20 individuals in recovery from a cardiac event.

Another key area identified for health intervention this year has been the menopause, with a clear gap in existing provision locally. Despite only launching our Menopause Matters programme in November of this year, we’ve already engaged over 100 women, with a further launch date set for the new year.

Cancer rehabilitation remains a key area of our health delivery, and this year, along with continuing to support over 200 participants on their recovery journey, we have introduced a pre-habilitation course, to ensure patients are in the best possible fitness state before their treatment begins.

By instilling physical activity and an understanding of healthy habits throughout our programme delivery, we aim to support good health and wellbeing across our full range of projects.

We have seen similar results achieved on our EFL Fit Fans programmes, with participants reporting increased selfesteem and a new found understanding

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caring in our approach

Social action A key theme running throughout a number of our youth-led projects is social action - giving something back to the community. Across our Sport England, NCS and Premier League funded projects, we ask participants to develop fundraising or awareness initiatives around causes which are important to them and their communities.

This year, we have seen young people engaged within our projects support some incredible causes across the city.

Our Tackle It and GREAT Girls Hub worked together across the summer holidays to organise a school uniform drive to put together back-to-school parcels for families.

The initiative had a great response, and they were able to collate 50 packs of uniform and other essentials, like pencil cases and water bottles, to support families whose children were returning to school in September.

Our NCS groups worked tirelessly across the summer to support a range of local and

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national charities, raising over £4,000 in total across four separate weeks of action.

Our Changemakers from both our NCS and Premier League Kicks courses continued to work on projects which were meaningful to them, which this year has included taking part in gardening work at a residential home and collecting toiletries and other essentials to create ‘Welcome Packs’ for refugees who are new to the city, as part of the Football Welcomes campaign during April.

Our latest cohort of Football and Education students also arranged a charity tournament in memory of their fellow learner who sadly passed away in recent months.

Encouraging participants to be caring in their approach from their youth helps us prepare them to become well-rounded individuals, who are empathetic and think of the needs of others. We’re proud of their ethos and hope to see their efforts continue to develop and flourish.

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hours of social action time invested by graduates who have completed our ncs projects this year.

KEEPING IT GREEN This year, we have stepped up our collaborative efforts both internally and externally to ensure we are committed to making our organisation, and those who interact with it, more eco-friendly.

Our first ‘green’ project of the year was the launch of The Dug Out – our community allotment. Developed in partnership with Marking Space UK, a dementia charity, and Disability Direct, to ensure it is fully accessible for all, The Dug Out has become a central part of our offer, where we’ve engaged with school children, older people, and grown produce for our partners at Derby Food 4 Thought Alliance – the city’s central food bank.

We then established ‘Black, White and Green’ as part of our Premier League Primary Stars delivery programme. The project focuses on students learning about protecting the environment and then planting trees to help reduce CO2 levels in the atmosphere.

go the Young People’s Forest and plant hundreds of trees to create a new woodland for future generation to enjoy, whilst helping to reduce climate change by creating a large forest area to offset carbon produced by the population.

The project aims to work with children and schools from deprived areas of the city, who may have never had the opportunity to experience the countryside. The project allows schools to raise the aspirations of their students and improves their social mobility, alongside teaching the next generation about sustainability.

Being collaborative in our partnerships goes beyond ‘inside the box’ thinking, and we’re excited to extend both of the above projects in 2023 and beyond, and continue to develop our green offer with the appointment of a Green Activities Officer.

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trees planted by local children as part of our black, white and green project this year.

Working in partnership with The Woodland Trust, students from inner city schools

collaborative in our partnerships

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Our work within Derby’s ethnically diverse communities continues to grow, as we look to provide more resources in different languages, ensure our provision is culturally sensitive and recognises religious dates and holidays.

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DCCT Anuual Report 2022

Developing More Active Communities Our commitment to developing more active communities begins with the very youngest of our participants, to encourage healthy habits from early life, right through the full spectrum of our delivery, to ensure those in their later years are part of a connected and vibrant community too.

Within schools, we aim to instil an active culture by not only engaging with pupils, but by also supporting teachers to become more confident in delivering physical activity and embedding it within the curriculum.

This approach is integral to our Active Schools programme, which has doubled its delivery in 2022 to support almost 5,000 primary aged pupils across Derby’s highest areas of deprivation.

All children take part in the universal programme, with activities including the Daily Mile and assemblies. Pupils in need of additional support are then signposted to our Rammie’s Healthy Heroes lunch time clubs, to support healthy lifestyles and weight loss, or to our physical literacy intervention to improve fine motor skills.

The extension of the project now means we run Rammie’s Little Movers and Little Live ITs, supported intervention programmes beginning at the very start of the education journey in nursery.

The programme also upskills staff within the school setting to ensure that the healthy, active culture lasts beyond the one-year intervention. Teachers and other school staff can access a full suite of training, resources and qualifications, which are backed up by our wider Schools team.

Across our teacher training programmes this year, which span our Schools Affiliation package, our Premier League Primary Stars delivery and the above Active Schools project, we have supported over 400

school staff to improve their confidence in delivery PE this year.

and impairment specific sessions we supported over 150 individuals this year.

Another ever-growing community which we are supporting is our girls’ football strand of delivery. This year, we recruited our first dedicated Female Football Lead to support the development of this area of our work.

The team have also built up a new Volunteer Academy this year to support the legacy and sustainability of our projects, and safeguard the longevity of active communities. 60 young people have actively volunteered and gained qualifications through the Academy.

Our successful Girls’ Regional Talent Centre continues to thrive, with 64 girls taking part in regular training and fixtures.

To support demand for this programme, we gained the license to launch an Emerging Talent Centre this year, which now provides training for an additional 85 10-16 year olds.

Building on previous years, our female Football and Education team now has 40 female learners, and we continue to encourage players through our Player Pathway in partnership with Derby County Women, with several players making their debut for their senior teams this season.

Community is at the heart of Inclusion delivery, with sessions taking place as close to participants’ homes as possible to remove any barriers of travel or cost. Our Premier League Kicks sessions continue to be at the heart of this offer, working with over 1,000 children and young people across 2022 – providing weekly sessions designed to decrease anti-social behaviour, increase skills and confidence and build community pride.

Our Inclusion team also strive to make opportunities accessible for people living with a disability. Across our pan-disability

Our work within Derby’s ethnically diverse communities continues to grow, as we look to provide more resources in different languages, ensure our provision is culturally sensitive and recognise religious dates and holidays.

Wellbeing For All is our leading project within these communities, working to increase awareness of signs and symptoms of cancer, alongside reducing health inequalities through activity, support and education. This year, we supported over 300 people through this project, and have continued to strengthen our interaction through generational links – utilising our relationships with schools and pupils to support older family members.

Finally, our Forever Active umbrella of delivery continues to support the older generation to remain part of an active community – both physically and socially.

Our Extra Time Hub welcomes participants to take part in regular social activity, and is complemented by our chair-based and low impact circuit sessions, with walking football remaining an ever-popular part of our timetable.

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cREATING MEANINGFUL EXPERIENCES

THE RAMS FAMILY FUND This year, the introduction of the Rams Family Fund has helped us create more meaningful experiences at Pride Park Stadium.

At the height of Derby County’s administration troubles in early 2022, fans took to the streets in support of their beloved club and all that is associated with it, in a 10,000 person strong march.

That powerful community spirit began to translate its way to donation requests, and the Rams Family Fund was launched in early February as a way to channel fans’ generous donations, and to accept applications from families wishing to attend the remaining home games of the campaign.

Just two weeks later, the total stood at an astonishing £30,000.

This allowed us to buy over 1,500 match tickets, which we distributed within our own sessions and across the community, to give as many people their first ever taste of Pride Park action, or allow them to return after a long time.

The whole campaign was a triumph, but we did have some notable highlights.

Firstly, Tyrese, a 7-year-old on our Live IT programme who came to England as a

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football-loving refugee, had never been to see a game in this country. He received one of the very first donated tickets, and fans then made further donations to kit him and his mum out in head to toe Derby kits, coats and scarves for their first visit to the stadium.

Then, we visited young Rams’ fan Tilly Hunt, who is in recovery from brain tumour treatment, with then-captain Tom Lawrence.

We were able to invite her family to watch a match in hospitality, and also provided 50 tickets for her to give to her friends and family.

Lastly, we met supporters John and Graham, who were invited to apply for tickets following a very difficult time in their lives. They had lost John’s wife, and Graham’s sister, Pat, in December 2021, and receiving the tickets in February was the only thing John had left the house for since his wife’s sad passing.

We have never felt more connected to our club and fans, and what we achieved to create meaningful experiences together in the bleakest of circumstances is testament to the power of community, and we have no doubt it will long continue under our new ownership.

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derby county tickets have been distributed through the rams family fund in 2022.

cerebral palsy squad We take huge pride in providing opportunities that allow participants to effectively fulfil their potential. We believe in a level playing field for all, and nowhere is this better represented than in our Disability delivery.

We deliver a number of weekly sessions supporting participants with a range of disabilities, and this year have been humbled and inspired by their successes.

Our sessions cover pan-disability and impairment specific football, and as we have been able to return to a regular delivery calendar following the pandemic, we have seen more participants wanting to be a part of our set up, more matches, more opportunities and more success.

One of those successes comes from Megan Gray, who is the only female player in our senior Cerebral Palsy squad – and the only female player in the league we compete in.

comeback to the pitch following successful recovery. On her return, she was offered the chance to travel abroad to train with other females and watch an international CP fixture too.

Her dedication does not go unnoticed, as she travels a significant distance each week to train as part of the team, where she has become an inspirational role model for other females living with a disability.

Megan was awarded our Inclusion Champion award at our Annual Awards in September in recognition of her talent, drive and determination. We are thrilled that she has also began a career in the footballing industry, as an apprentice at fellow Club Community Organisation Port Vale Foundation, where she will continue to grow and thrive – but play for the Rams of course!

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of our disability players have received international call ups this year.

Despite suffering from a major injury this season, she has continued to support her team from the side lines and made an early

EFFECTIVELY FULLFILLING POTENTIAL

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we are committed to providing opportunity for all. Our programmes ensure that activity is accessible and removes barries to participation. we are proud to be an inclusive organisation which helps people to find their place.

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DCCT Anuual Report 2022

Optimising Life Chances Many of our participants come to our programmes at a disadvantage – whether through their family background, financial difficultly, educational attainment or health inequality. All our projects have a united aim to optimise life chances and level the playing field for all to achieve.

The extension of our holiday activity to include food provision directly stems from this aim to provide an equitable service.

Holiday Activity and Food is a governmentfunded initiative which supports children who usually receive benefits-based free school meals in the school holidays.

However, the funding is only available during the longer holidays of Christmas, Easter and summer, so our staff wanted to ensure this offer become holistic.

Granted funding by our board, our first Rams Family Support holiday programme took place over October and provided free activity and lunches for children on the programme and also worked with our Health team to devise a series of healthy recipes accompanied by the ingredients to make additional meals.

Our Schools and Coaching team continue their support of school pupils through our Premier League Primary Stars intervention activities: Matchday Maths, Reading and Writing Stars and Resilient Rammie. The sessions work with identified children to use football as an inspirational tool to support curriculum delivery and engage children who may not respond to traditional modes of teaching.

Our Education and Employability department epitomise our ability to cater for the individual learner. The extension of our Employability delivery this year through the Prince’s Trust SCORE programme has allowed us to work with 300 young people and promote opportunities in the Health and Social Care sector.

Our Traineeships continue to provide opportunities to young people not in education, employment or training, offering the chance to gain qualifications

in a relaxed and supportive environment.

This is supported by the chance to undertake work experience in a wide variety of fields.

We continue to develop our Further and Higher Education provision, with over 200 learners joining us for their post-16 studies this year. We have extended our geographical reach once more to provide an opportunity to combine training and playing football with gaining qualifications at a range of levels.

Fundamentally, we offer the chance to join us at a foundation level at both post-16 and degree level, to ensure we are making our courses accessible for students from a range of backgrounds and circumstances that may not reach criteria elsewhere.

Our commitment to enriching students’ education provides hands-on opportunities, both within the Trust and beyond. This year, we have seen three students finishing their qualifications join us in full-time employment, testament to the quality of experience and guidance we strive to offer.

From next year, we are diversifying our study options even further, with three separate degree pathways becoming available, along with a media-based programme for post-16 students, providing the best opportunities that we can to cater for all interests.

Building on from the work of our community outreach projects, we deliver further targeted activity to young people that may find mainstream education provision difficult. Our PL Kicks Targeted programme works with participants on an individual basis, to find and develop their personal targets and motivations, with the long-term aim of integrating them back

into full-time education.

This model of work is exemplified through the Opportunity Area Inclusion Project. We led a consortium of partners to support over 800 young people at risk of exclusion, through engaging with their interests, wants and needs rather than trying to make conventional educational delivery work for them.

Continuing our work within the education setting, our Winning Minds team deliver a robust programme of activity to young people, helping them to deal with emotion and stress – particularly around major milestones, including sitting exams and moving from primary to secondary school.

Their work aims to reduce worries, build confidence and self-esteem and provide coping mechanisms. Where students need further wellbeing support, our communitybased Tackle It and GREAT Girls hubs offer additional sessions to ensure we our approach is holistic.

Mental wellbeing is core to our adult delivery too, with our Team Talk hubs continuing to provide males with a safe space to talk across the city. 80 regular attendees are supported by the social sessions which simply encourage men to talk about their problems in a supportive environment.

2022 was a key year for one of our flagship programmes, Active Choices, as it celebrated ten years of delivery. Its key aim is to support participants in their recovery from substance and alcohol addiction, and through commemorating the programme’s delivery we were reminded of just how many people’s life chances we have been able to impact and optimise.

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TAKING PRIDE IN OUR WORK football and education Each year, we highlight the achievements of one of our programmes at our Annual Awards. Our delivery range is vast, and it is never an easy decision to single out one project, but this year, the accolade was justly received by our Football and Education team.

The development of the programme has been remarkable, growing at an incredible rate since September 2021, where 100 new learners joined us, with a further 100 joining in September of this year, meaning we are now working with over 200 learners, including 40 female learners – the highest percentage we’ve ever had in our Education and Employability department. Students are based at five different venues across the county.

Particular achievements this academic year have seen one of our teams winning their league, two other teams finishing second and the Women’s team reached the EFL CEFA National Cup Semi-final.

Two learners have trialled with professional academies, we have created an U21 team to develop and challenge our learners,

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and continued to progress talented female players through our Regional Talent Centre and on to our education courses whilst representing Derby County Women too.

We have provided eight of our degree students with work placements within our squads, with two of them now moving into paid employment with the Trust.

Most importantly, we are committed to enriching students through extra-curricular activity during their time with us. We have visited St George’s Park, taken part in NCS, hosted CV workshops and built a partnership with overseas scholarship provider FiveZero to open up opportunities beyond the programme.

We are most proud of the fact that 97.32% of learners that start on our programme finish the full two-year course, which is testament to the efforts of our staff team, who work tirelessly to cater for every learner’s needs and ambitions.

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learners are currently studying on our post-16 courses whilst training and playing competitive football.

COMMUNITY CORNER Being valued by our community is at the very core of our what we do. Every project is united in its aim to help, support and develop our communities and their residents.

As we approach 2023, we’re thrilled to have a brand new home within Pride Park Stadium to deliver some of our projects from, ensuring we are doing everything we can to support communities through the cost of living crisis by opening the hub as a warm, welcome space.

Harrison’s Hub at the Community Corner opened its doors in November, hosting several existing sessions, including Team Talk, Extra Time Hub and our food donation hub. It was named by fans who wished to pay respect to the late Reg Harrison, who was well known across Derby for his community work following his footballing career.

Our ambitions for the new year are to host weekly open access sessions where hot drinks and warm packs will be provided, and to work with other charities to invite

participants to weekly community meals.

These plans will be made possible with the support of fans through the sales of the 1884 Wall, where all proceeds will be invested into making these projects a reality.

We are working as one with the football club on the Rams Family Support project – all staff will able to volunteer time within their working day to help the sessions to materialise, and having the space located within the stadium itself adds to the enjoyment and accessibility of the venue.

Derby County Football Club is the heartbeat of its community. By bringing people into the stadium who may find themselves at a difficult time, we will ensure that we can be truly valued by our community, through providing vital support, creating new experiences and making memories for all involved.

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spaces purchased on the 1884 wall will allow us to invest £1,000 a week into harrison’s hub to provide community meals throughout january, february and march.

Valued by our community

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building community pride and creating a legacy which outlasts our interaction with an individual is crucial to us achieving success.

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DCCT Anuual Report 2022

Building community pride An overarching aim of our broad range of work is to ultimately improve and instil pride in the communities we serve. We aim to add value, create belonging and promote opportunity to build community pride.

Our programmes put community at their very heart, and help others to appreciate the places they live, and support their improvement.

Our NCS projects exemplify that notion.

They encourage young people to make a difference in their local communities by choosing causes which mean something to them. This year, that included: Save the Children, Heartlink, Alzheimer’s Society, Doorways Derby, Bridge the Gap, Children’s First, Bundles of Hope, Hope Centre Long Eaton, Derbyshire Refugee Solidarity, Cancer Research and Derby Food 4 Thought, amongst many others.

Over 400 young people took part in our summer and autumn programmes.

We also extended our NCS delivery through the Skillsbooster programme, which saw us work with an additional 225 pupils at local secondary schools, to increase confidence, knowledge and selfesteem.

A major target for 2022 was to increase our fundraising capacity as a charity to ensure we have sufficient levels of unreserved funding, to either support new projects or continue funding of existing initiatives.

We kickstarted several new ideas to help us generate funds in new and innovative ways. Firstly, we installed the first 1884 Wall in January of this year, which saw 1,000 Rams’ fans names displayed at Pride Park Stadium. This generated an incredible £11,000, which covered the costs of our Sensory Room for the 2021/22 season.

The Sensory Room is a hugely important facility which allows children and young people with additional needs, especially autism, to enjoy a matchday experience at Pride Park Stadium. Fans’ buy in allowed us to continue running the room throughout Derby County Football Club’s administration across 2021 and 2022.

The administration of the football club presented a truly difficult period of time, but it also inspired fans to come together as a community like never before. The Rams Family Fund was a product of fans’ community spirit, and it raised over £33,000, allowing us to send over 1,500 fans to games.

April 2022 saw us return to our regular springtime slot for the Derby 10K. As our biggest fundraiser, we welcomed over 3,000 runners to the event and generated £28,000 for our projects. A number of participants take on the event each year as a way to give back to the programmes which support them.

2022 also saw the return of our Rams in Kenya project after a three-year hiatus due to the pandemic. 66 volunteers took on the trip of a lifetime to support our five partner schools in the slums of Nakuru, Kenya.

They helped to build school facilities, redecorate, provide activity and generate funds to purchase equipment.

The Rams in Kenya trip demonstrates our commitment to building community pride, not just at home, but also in the communities we serve abroad. As we look ahead to the tenth anniversary of the trip in 2023, where we will take our largest ever cohort of volunteers, we also ensure the trip supports our programmes locally by investing a percentage of funds raised into Derbyshire-based initiatives ran by our Health team.

Each year, community pride is best showcased through our Annual Awards.

2022’s event was no different, with worthy winners being nominated and recognised from across our programmes.

The night acts as a fantastic reminder of the reach and breadth of our projects, and celebrates the achievements of our participants, staff, volunteers, partners and supporters.

To us, building community pride and creating a legacy which outlasts our interaction with an individual is crucial to us achieving success. To see participants years beyond their participation with us, and see them leading happy and healthy lives, or to provide a pathway which can support an individual throughout their lifetime is our ultimate goal.

This was then followed by our Grads in Kenya trip, where 20 graduates from our NCS programme continued the work started by our volunteers across two schools.

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IMPROVING LIVES IN DERBY 24

TRUST PARTNERS this year, we developed a new network of supportive businesses.

We launched Trust Partners as a way to engage local businesses in our projects in ways that meet the interests and ambitions of each company.

The way businesses can lend support is varied, and we have seen our Trust Partners make financial donations, volunteer their time, provide in-kind support and sponsor our teams and events.

Throughout the year we have gained 30 official Trust Partners, who we are working with to achieve joint aims, improve our provision and increase our unreserved funding levels to invest in new projects.

We thank all of our Trust Partners for their ongoing support, and look forward to developing our network even further in 2023!

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a final word simon carnall - head of community The last 12 months have seen significant highs and lows, from being awarded the EFL Community Club for the Midlands accolade once again, to the challenges of Derby County Football Club’s administration battle, but one thing has remained steadfast: our commitment to community.

We now begin a new chapter in Derby County’s history facing many issues within our society, which we are working more closely than ever, as one club, to address.

This report has detailed the successes and the challenges of the last 12 months, celebrating the impact we have made, but not shying away from the substantial work that there is to do to support our communities.

Our staff continue to innovate, build our reach and support our participants to thrive.

As ever, we thank our funders, partners, supporters and sponsors for their unwavering commitment, and we look forward to 2023 with ambitious plans, aspirations and aims.

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ANNUAL REPORT 2022

funding partners A huge thank you to our highly valueD partners for all their contributions during 2022. We look forward to continuing our collaborative work in the future.

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REGISTERED CHARITY NUMBER

1123520