CommunityHappy fifth birthday Red Neighbours

To mark the occasion, the Red Neighbours team will be sharing its key achievements, milestones and memorable moments on social media.

Since its launch in January 2017, Red Neighbours has supported more than 100,000 local people in north Liverpool and Kirkby.

During the past five years, Red Neighbours has been working to address four areas of need: food poverty and education, supporting the elderly community, creating memorable experiences for young people, and promoting an active community.

Red Neighbours’ activities, which were initially designed in response to consultation with local people and key community stakeholders, continue to develop and grow and in early 2019 the team launched activity in Kirkby ahead of the first team’s move to the AXA Training Centre.

Some of Red Neighbours’ most recognised activities include its breakfast clubs during school holidays, family food education sessions, foodbank collections and support, walking football/netball and chair-based yoga sessions, career networking events with local schools, and matchday hospitality and tickets for the local community.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, Red Neighbours needed to adapt quickly to ensure that it could remain connected to its local communities and local people, many of whom were facing isolation during unprecedented circumstances.

Many of Red Neighbours’ activities and events were unable to take place in person but alongside LFC Foundation, they were moved to virtual delivery while the club’s COVID-19 Response work with new targeted initiatives was launched.

One of those initiatives is LFC Connect, which is essentially a ‘virtual cuppa’ and a friendly chat. LFC Connect made more than 1,400 phone calls to members of the community who were either cut off from family and friends or isolating to keep themselves safe. LFC Connect is still running now almost two years after it was launched.

Red Neighbours’ longstanding relationship with St Andrew’s Community Network – home of the North Liverpool Foodbank – also continued throughout the pandemic, with more than £320,000 raised by the club to support the foodbank network and establish five new community pantries to serve communities throughout the city.

Forbes Duff, senior manager, Red Neighbours, said: “We are delighted to be celebrating our fifth successful year and taking the opportunity to look back and reflect on the impact we have made in our local communities, working with local people, schools, community groups, charities and businesses.

“From the beginning, our aim was to always to strive to be a good neighbour and support our local community through a range of engaging activities and events. As a club, it is our social responsibility to do so and it’s something that we take great pride in.

“We are now ready to take on 2022, providing delivery sessions and vital support every week to our LFC family. It has been an amazing five years but not without its challenges, especially in the last two years. The difficulties and changes we have faced and tackled together as a team have only made us stronger and on behalf of Red Neighbours, I would like to say thank you everyone who has been a part of our journey to date.”

• To find out more about Red Neighbours’ work, follow @Red_Neighbours on Twitter.