It’s not all just about football over at the Burton Albion Community Trust, and in the seven years the organisation has been running, its outreach has never been wider.
While the football club is battling it out in Championship taking on teams like Derby County, Nottingham Forest and Sunderland, its community trust has been working hard to improve people's lives in and around the area.
As the club has progressed through the leagues so the trust (BACT) has been able to secure more funding to continue and increase the work it does, including sessions on health and fitness for everyone from young children to pensioners. All clubs in the league have a community arm like the BACT.
Starting with just two members of staff in September 2010, the trust (BACT) has now surged to 49 full-time employees, 20 part-time along with 20 volunteers. The BACT is a charity and is the community arm of Burton Albion Football Club.
Under the yellow and black badge of the Brewers, BACT members have sought to spread not just the love of the game, but the positive impacts of teamwork, health and wellbeing and inclusion throughout the community.
Its guiding motto, "Inspire, Engage and Education" aims to make a difference in the communities through the power of sport and brand of Burton Albion FC, which the BACT makes abundantly clear.
Matt Hancock, 32, community manager of the BACT said that the charity aims to help those most in need, regardless of age or background.
He said: "We are here to support the communities who need us the most and we aim to make sure that people who need our help, are getting our help."
Matt, who has been involved with the BACT for nearly six years, added: "There are community trusts for all 72 clubs in the football league and they are all different.
"Something that we have done which almost no-one else has, is to set out a three-year plan, which runs until 2020, we chatted to organisations and stakeholders and worked out the things we do well and what we could do better.
"We haven't ruled out growth, but it won’t be a main focus of what we are doing; it's quality over quantity.
"We have five aims which we are trying to promote, these are health and wellbeing, inclusive sport, education and learning, football development and school sport – but it all comes down to this, inspire, engage and educate."
The outreach work carried out by the BACT has seen people of all ages getting involved - 8,000 in total, with the youngest participant aged just two-and-a-half and the oldest aged 94.
Its three-year plan was launched in June this year.
"Sport is really just the hook," said Matt, who used to be a development officer for the Staffordshire FA.
"Schools are at the heart of each community, so it is great to get the parents, staff and pupils involved.
"But it isn’t just sport or even football, lots of it is about health and wellbeing - one of our core aims, along with social inclusion.
"Often we are helping kids out who might be on the edge of exclusion."
Soon all of the BACT’s work will move to a new building across from the home of the Brewers at the Pirellli Stadium, which is part of the Burton Albion site off Derby Road.
The new space includes a classroom and other teaching areas, along with office room for staff and the BACT will move to the building next year.
In 2014, the BACT took over the management at the Grange Community Centre, now the Hub in Casey Lane, which is geared towards support and care for disabled adults and children, and staff also provide respite care so carers can get a break.
The BACT currently offers 250 hours’ worth of community activities each week, with 200 sessions in total, these run from 8am until 10pm.
"We aim to give people the chance to see if they have what it takes to do what they want, and to boost their self-esteem and confidence, all this could help their employability," said Matt.
"At the moment the organisation is as strong as it has ever been, and that is down to our workforce, we haven’t got a weak link in the team.
"We have made a serious effort to change how we used to run some things, like instead of choosing a team to run a new project and then seeing if they are the best fit, now we are much more community led.
"This means that we visit communities to find out what it is they need, some areas that might not even be football, it is often cricket in some areas or dance and basketball in others, and then we pick the best people for the job.
"In each of our key areas we have qualified staff instead of trying to develop people into ‘jacks of all trades’.
"This includes UEFA coaches for the sports side of things and qualified teachers for some of our other projects."
The BACT also takes part in many charitable causes, inviting charities to home games with buckets for donations, and organising fund-raising events such as a cycle rides from Barnsley to Amsterdam and visits to Ghana.
It also has its own dance group, whose members perform at each Burton Albion home game.
This dance group is often an outlet for those who cannot afford to go to dance schools.
Its activities include street football scheme Kicks, which is hosted at Multi Use Games Areas (MUGA) pitches, or at parks in and around Burton and East Staffordshire.
Other schemes include walking football for the over 50s, which Lisa Beard - who has been BACT community operations manager since September – says has brought in many people who don’t even watch or like the sport.
"Many of the people that take part in our over 50s classes don’t even watch or like football, but it’s the taking part and social interaction, and coming to a nice stadium which they like," said Lisa, who previously worked for Age UK.
"Everyone seems to have heard of the BACT at this point, has seen the yellow jackets and sport is always in some way linked to a family.
"Some of our members had a loved one who always went to the Albion games, or had football on TV, it’s linked to everyone.
"The organisation is so great that it was any easy decision to apply for the job, and now 10 weeks in I feel it is going well.
"Football is at the heart of so many families and we can use the popularity of the sport and Burton Albion to help do great things."
For more information on the Burton Albion Community Trust visit www.burtonalbioncommunitytrust.co.uk
