Category: Equality

There can be few more relevant or powerful images than the one of Dave Kelly, an Evertonian to the core, holding a banner representing both Merseyside clubs while standing on the freezing concrete of Sir Matt Busby Way behind a trolley filled with donated items for a foodbank set up by Manchester United supporters.

It has been part of Kelly’s average weekend routine for three years now, operating out of Goodison Park on behalf of Everton’s Supporters Trust, and depending on his team’s schedule sometimes from one of the three collection points around Anfield where he works with Ian Byrne, who coordinates collections on behalf of Spirit of Shankly.

A new initiative will be launched on Wednesday which pairs professional football clubs with prisons in an attempt to prevent reoffending.

The Twinning Project will aim to tackle the high rate of reoffending by using football to better prepare prisoners for release, find employment and reduce reoffending.

The initiative has the backing of the government, FA, Premier League and EFL, as well as the PFA and LMA.

Street & Arrow dishes up tasty modern street food. However this social enterprise does more than just good grub, it’s also serving up second chances for its employees.

Street & Arrow hires people with convictions for twelve month blocks. During that time workers are paired with a mentor who can help them master everything from basic employment skills like turning up to work on time through to debt management and relationship issues.

Double Click, based in Shotton, is a service which used to be run by Flintshire Council to provide employment and training opportunities.

However, for the last two years it has been operating as an independent company and has turned a small profit.

Its success comes despite its base being targetted during 2017 by criminals who broke in and caused damage to the building and computers.

Mark Mutlow and Grant Jones, currently residents with Threshold Housing Link, are already supplying three varieties of fruit juice to early adopters among Swindon’s Businesses Against Homelessness. The project is proving so successful, they hope to expand into a shop at the Brunel Centre.

It started at Culvery Court, Threshold’s emergency hostel for homeless men. Threshold funding, along with donations of fruit and vegetables donated by local shops, were used to make healthy juices for residents each morning, to make sure they had a nutritious start to the day. Now Mark is hoping to develop the juicing operation into a business – called Fresh Health and Wellness Juices.

A new sanitary pad initiative is giving girls and women in Papua New Guinea a safe way to deal with menstruation while simultaneously providing economic opportunities for Aboriginal women in northwest Queensland.

Despite living in one of Queensland’s most disadvantaged areas, women from the community of Doomadgee have spent months sewing more than 1,300 washable sanitary pads and making hundreds of Moon Sick Care Bags for girls and women living in remote Papua New Guinea.