Show Your Support Towards Derby County's New Charity Partners

Derby County Football Club recently announced that three local charities had been selected as charity partners for the next two seasons.

In a change from previous seasons, the club is supporting three charities over the course of the 2019/20 and 2020/21 campaigns.

Derbyshire Carers Association, me&dee and Safe & Sound are charities that support children within the Derbyshire community, all in their own individual ways, and the club will be raising crucial funds and awareness for each charity during the next two seasons.

The Rams will celebrate the launch of their new charity partners at the home fixture against Preston North End at Pride Park Stadium on Saturday 23rd November 2019 (3pm kick-off), which is the nearest home game to World Children’s Day on Wednesday 20th November.

From every home match ticket sold for the game, £1 will be donated to each of the charities to get the fundraising started. In addition, a bucket collection will also be staged outside the stadium ahead of kick-off.

Buy your tickets for Derby's home game against Preston here.

Purchases can also be made by calling 0871 472 1884 (option 1) ^ or in person from the Ticket Office during normal opening hours.

Derby’s target is to achieve £10,000 per season for each charity over the course of the two-year charity partnership and all monies raised through the club will be split completely evenly across the three organisations.

A JustGiving page has been set up to coincide with the launch of the partnership and can be found by visiting justgiving.com/crowdfunding/dcfc.

Derby County’s Chief Executive Officer, Stephen Pearce, commented: “As a Football Club, we are proud to announce that we will be working very closely with three charity partners, with an emphasis on the care of children, over the next two seasons.

“All three charities work tirelessly to serve our local community in a truly inspiring manner, and they should be commended for the work that they do. The youngsters of today deserve every opportunity to have the best possible future and we are committed to making a difference, by raising vital funds and awareness, right across Derbyshire.

“We are looking forward to developing our relationship with the three charities and helping them grow and continue their outstanding work.”

About The Charities

Derbyshire Carers Association

Established in 1988, Derbyshire Carers Association supports carers, including Young Carers, who look after a friend or family member who, due to illness, disability, mental health problems or an addiction cannot cope without their help and support.

Many adults and children who are supporting someone do not see themselves as a ‘carer’ but as relatives or friends. Caring for others can be complex and demanding, physically taxing and mentally draining. It has a huge impact on children’s lives.

Carers often become so focused on the person they care for that they forget to look after themselves.

Derbyshire Carers Association support young carers and their families to reduce the impact of caring on the child and support them emotionally, socially and physically to access the same opportunities and achieve as highly, as any other child.

Narinder Sharma, Chief Executive Officer of the Derbyshire Carers Association, said: “We are delighted to be working to improve life opportunities for young people together with Derby County and other partners.

“Derbyshire Carers has been providing vital support over 30 years for carers.

“We support Young carers and their families on a daily basis, and organise activities and outings as well as getting schools, GPs and other voluntary and government organisations to identify and help in the best way possible.

“There may well be over 12,000 young carers in the county. This important work with Derby County will go some way to helping these vulnerable and highly deserving children.”

Website: derbyshirecarers.co.uk

me&dee

The me&dee registered charity was formed in 2006 to create special memory experiences when time is short or precious and to date more than 3,000 families have been helped through the support of the charity.

Their mission is to ensure families going through difficult times are gifted with memories that they can treasure, never losing sight of what truly matters.

Those special moments shared with the ones we love, no matter how complicated circumstances may be, are the most precious of all.

me&dee aim to achieve this by fundraising to provide free week-long holidays to families, in a Luxury Lodge that they own in Sherwood Forest, with no charge for utilities and vouchers for local amenities included. This is done by simple application process with no tick boxes to ensure as little stress as possible.

Maria Hanson MBE, founder and Chief Executive Officer of the me&dee charity, said: “We are elated, delighted and extremely proud to be chosen as a charity partner for Derby County Football Club.

“Whilst every charity needs to secure funding for the good work that they do, me&dee is totally reliant on donations without any council or government funding.

“It isn’t just about the money that will be raised though. It is about promotion, the raising of our profile for the work that we do and hugely, the belief and trust in us from Derby County that would make them choose us as a charity partner.

“We are hugely excited about our future over the next two seasons with Derby County.”

Website: meanddee.co.uk

Safe & Sound

Safe and Sound is working towards a world where children and young people are free from sexual abuse and exploitation. The effect of child sexual abuse is devastating. It impacts upon a young person’s physical, mental and emotional wellbeing.

Since 2002, Safe and Sound have been tackling child sexual exploitation by providing high quality tailored one-to-one support to victims and young people at risk in Derby and Derbyshire and work to ensure that individuals receive the support they need to move forwards in their lives.

They are committed to raising awareness which is why they deliver education and awareness to children, parents, professionals and the public to ensure that those at risk of or affected by sexual abuse are responded to effectively. Safe and Sound also provide opportunities for any young person we have supported that has been affected by sexual exploitation, to take part in positive events and activities that help build confidence and self-esteem.

Raising funds will help Safe and Sound to continue to grow their one-to-one support service for young people to ensure more young people who experience sexual exploitation can get the vital help they need to move forwards in their lives.

Tracy Harrison, Chief Executive of Safe and Sound, said: “We are over the moon to be chosen is one of Derby County Football Club’s charities.

“The announcement follows our launch of the Butterfly Appeal earlier this year to support our vision to support and protect more children and young people from the devastating damage that CSE has on their lives.

“Sexual exploitation is a hidden, heinous crime.Young people often don’t understand that they are being exploited or are too scared and possibly ashamed to tell anyone what is happening.

“Our vision of is to support young people to move not just to a place of safety, but emerge, like a butterfly, unshackled and undefined by their experiences and enabled to reach their full potential.

“We will also be able to better support families who are so deeply affected by these crimes and raise more awareness of the dangers in local communities of the manipulative tactics deployed by perpetrators to groom, control and abuse children and young people in our county.”

Website: safeandsoundgroup.org.uk

Derby’s previous charity partnerships have seen the club successfully work alongside Derbyshire Air Ambulance, Macmillan Cancer Support and Alzheimer’s Society and raise thousands of pounds for each organisation.

Rams fans can make donations to the charities at any time by visiting justgiving.com/crowdfunding/dcfc.