Burnley Together has been announced as the Official Community Partner of Burnley Football Club for the 2024/25 season.
To celebrate the partnership, Burnley Head Coach, Scott Parker visited Down Town, where he learned about the importance of the services available to people in the town.
Speaking about the visit and time spent at Down Town, Parker admitted it was a ‘humbling’ experience for himself and had high praise for the work done and the people that make it happen.
“It was pretty humbling. In certain moments the world we live in, no one wants to see in certain aspects of what people are going through.
What I must say is, this place if full of incredible people, volunteers, people who are here with nothing but big hearts wanting to help the town.
What has been set out here is a really special place to be fair, nothing but real pride of what the people here are achieving and what they do is so special.” Said the Head Coach.
Nicola Larnach, Burnley Together Co-Ordinator, discussed how Down Town was formed and highlighted in detail what services are available on offer to the community.
“We knew that we wanted to engage even more people face to face who needed help through Burnley Together and that’s why we set up Down Town two years ago and it has grown ever since from there.
What we have now is amazing, the partnership is so important and showed what we can achieve when organisations work together in Burnley.
People come to Down Town for all kinds of support and everybody that comes in has their own needs, so when they come through the front door we want it to be a place that is welcoming.
We have a range of services and support including the café and community grocery, where anybody can become a member or gift a membership or food shop to someone that might be struggling.”
CEO of Burnley FC in the Community, Helen Gurman, explained what the Burnley Together partnership looks like and how the football club can play its part.
“Burnley Together are a fantastic partnership of a number of organisations within Burnley. They all come together to support the people most at need in the town.
As part of the partnership we have ourselves Burnley FC in the Community, Burnley Council, Burnley Leisure, Calico and the Community Grocery.
I think it’s really unique for all these partners, who are so diverse, to come together with one goal which is to support everyone in the local community.
In Burnley, the town is integral to the football club, we know the football club is the heartbeat of the town, and the club recognises their position and ability to really change lives.
At Burnley FC in the Community, we want to be able to use the power of the football to support those most in need in the town.”