Community Trust, Latics Style
We’re big fans of Wigan Athletic Football Club here at Westwood Motor Group.
But we don’t just support them because they’re our local team – we love how they support our local community.
It’s something genuinely close to our heart, doing what you can to improve the quality of life for the people close to you.
And nothing shows off the Latics’ commitment to giving something back like the Wigan Athletic Community Trust.
What is the Wigan Athletic Community Trust?
It’s how Wigan Athletic connect with us local residents, in particular the younger people in our borough.
Every year they work with over 12,000 of us, and their main focus is helping kids (and adults) lead more active and healthy lives. They do this mostly through sport, getting as many people involved as they can.
But they do more than just sport. They promote healthy eating and positive lifestyle choices too, to get young people and families in our area clued up about the long term impact of diet and personal decisions.
What kind of things do they do?
A good example of their great work is their 12th Man health campaign.
Their 12th Man programme saw sports coaches run workshops for 12 to 19 year olds, over ten weeks, and the work they did saw real results. A 52% decrease in youngsters snacking on fried food and sweets; a 78% decrease in young people with low mental wellbeing scores; a massive 154% increase in the number of participants taking part in vigorous activity four to seven days a week.
Those are just some of the stats, for one of their many projects.
And they even use sport to set young people up for the future, by helping kids gain the qualifications and skills they need for a career in sports coaching.
They do this by using the resources of Wigan Athletic, partnering up with other local initiatives and offering a range of coaching career choices. But there’s also the opportunity for you to volunteer, complete a work placement or further your studies at university.
Who are they working with?
From the global brand that is the Premier League to local schemes, they work with the right organisations. Obviously Wigan Athletic FC are their closest tie – that’s how they improve equality and diversity (with the Latics’ Together programme), disability sports participation (Every Player Counts) and getting more girls into football (with Wigan Athletic Ladies’ Football Club).
With the Premier League, they help enrich the lives of primary school kids (the Primary Stars programme) and keep older kids in deprived areas into sport and out of trouble (Kicks).
They work closely with Wigan Council, plus Wigan and Leigh Homes among other Wigan-based initiatives. There’s also Wigan Youth Zone and the Brick (both fantastic local enterprises that Westwood donate vehicles to) who are partners with the Wigan Athletic Community Trust because they’ve got a common goal – making sure local people get the help they need.
And what’s that got to do with Westwood?
Anything that makes Wigan a happier, healthier and more close-knit community is good by us. And seeing this done with sport is even better, because it might just mean one of our local boys or girls becomes the next big thing (hopefully in blue and white).
But we just want to see our young people do better. There’s not one person at Westwood Motor Group who doesn’t have a young family member living in the local area. We’ve got a personal stake in the success of Wigan as a place, and we believe the Wigan Athletic Community Trust is the perfect example of what we should all be getting behind.
That’s why we’re delighted to support them.
Vehicle problems? Vehicle solutions.
We’re proud to donate a brand new Toyota Proace to Wigan Athletic Community Trust, to continue our strong relationship and to keep doing good.
Westwood’s representative Les handed over the keys to Tom Flower, the Head of Community, and as you can see from the smile on his face, he loved it.
“Thank you for your continued support!”
And Chris Melling, Westwood’s Managing Director, knows how much effort Tom and all our charity partners put in.
“The charities we support do so much for our local community. The people involved in these charities work so hard and make such a difference in our community – it’s great for us to be involved, helping out where we can.”
Help be the difference
Wigan Athletic Community Trust are brilliant and we need them. But they need you too.
It’s clear that the work they do in the community is priceless. So why not help them do even more good?
Even pitching in in a minor way can have a huge impact, because when your success is measured by the improvement in local kids’ lives, there are no small wins.
It’s all life changing stuff, every bit of it.
And if you want to help make that difference, click here to see the work Wigan Athletic Community Trust do and how you can get involved.
Or if you want to see what great stuff their local partners are doing, click here to have a look at the Brick and Wigan Youth Zone.
Unless you’re desperate to rent or buy the best vans and cars, at the cheapest prices…in which case, contact us!
