A key part of the ‘Everton Family’ has to be the Everton Foundation, the charitable arm of the club which ensures Everton’s presence in the local community and gives the club a platform to help the community that gave birth to Everton. Everton Foundation employee and Everton Tigers coach Henry Mooney answered a few questions for us on behalf of the Everton Foundation.

Q) Firstly can I ask about the history of the Everton’s charitable work in the community. How long has there been an Everton charitable presence in the local community?

A) There has been an Everton in the Community / Foundation presence as such in the local communities it was started by Ted Sutton and progressed onto becoming Everton in the Community and then Everton Foundation.

Q) The Everton Foundation was until recently called Everton In The Community. What is the reason for this name change? Is it purely cosmetic or is there a wider reason for it?

A) There is a wider reason for the change it gives the charity more avenues in which to pursue funding from and also enables the foundation to include more projects.

Q) So what exactly does the Everton Foundation do?

A) The Everton Foundation provides both academic and sporting opportunities for the local and greater Merseyside communities because of its track record in performance it had know gone International and has offices in Anglesey, Shanghai and also soccer camps in Canada, Vietnam, Laos, Kenya, and Morocco.

Q) How much of a say does the club have in the running of the foundation, is it an independent charity acting in the club’s name or do the club take an active interest in the running of the foundation?

A) The club play an active interest in the Charity our CEO is a trustee and the club is our biggest funder.

Q) As a coach of the Everton Tigers, possibly the highest profile symbol of the foundation, could you explain why the foundation chose to partner up with the Tigers?

A) The Foundation choose to partner up with the Tigers to give it an even bigger profile in the hard to reach communities Basketball is a world wide sport that encompasses people from all ethnic and cultural backgrounds

Q) Would you say the Tigers have been a success and where would you like to see them progressing in the future?

A) They have been a success in the UK over the last three years I feel that we would like to progress in the next few years to playing a European competition.

Q) How can Everton fans go about watching the Tigers?

A) They can come to watch them at the Greenback Sports Academy, Sefton Park, Liverpool L17

Q) Of course there are other things the foundation does. I believe the Everton Foundation boasts the world’s largest disabled football programme, how important do you think this is to the foundation?

A) Very important we have a wealth of experience in working with people who have both physical and Learning disabilities it gives the foundation a really positive image in the communities that we work in

Q) I also believe Lee Carsley helped with the disabled programme. Do the players often make contributions, either financially or otherwise, to the foundation?

A) Yes the players do play a major part in the Foundation activities and make themselves available to support the foundations staff at various activities.

Q) Are there any other significant contributions the foundation makes to the community of Merseyside?

A) The foundation have a good reputation in the Merseyside Area as a model of good practice and pass on there expertise to other organisations to help with there own programmes

Q) There are many different sporting charities like the Football Foundation. How does the Everton Foundation work with these charities?

A) They work in Partnership with other sporting charities around the country a lot of them run the same type of community programmes i.e. Kickz, Positive Futures etc

Q) What would you say is the future of the Everton Foundation?

A) The future of the foundation is to build on its strengths and develop more projects that are deliverable to the local communities also to broaden and increase its image around the world

Q) How can fans get involved in the foundation?

A) We have a volunteer programme that runs within the Foundation enabling supporters to get involved supporting and learning about what the Foundation does.

For more information on the Everton Foundation visit http://www.evertonfoundation.org/

Our next interview to be put up on Wednesday 6th January will be with Jah Jussa of Tabacula, the company behind the Dixie Dean movie.

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