Huddersfield Town Foundation

The Huddersfield Town Foundation was officially launched in July 2012 by then Huddersfield Town Chairman, Dean Hoyle. The launch of the Foundation created further initiatives to benefit young people across the Kirklees community, such as trips to the Play-Off Final games at Manchester United’s Old Trafford (May 2011) and Wembley Stadium (May 2012), with almost 2,000 children attending. These trips offered families a rare opportunity to create lasting memories and enjoy the game free of charge, with tickets and travel paid for through fundraising activities such as bike rides from Huddersfield to Wembley, the Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge and ‘It’s a Knockout’. With a remit of improving the lives of young people across the region, the Town Foundation created the ‘Early Kick-Off’ Breakfast Club initiative to ensure that children started their learning day in school with a healthy and nutritious breakfast. The first breakfast club launched at Christchurch Academy in July 2012, with the charity harnessing the football club’s unique position within the community to pull together several charitable businesses to provide this at no cost to the children. The Foundation now proudly facilitates 41 Early Kick Off breakfast clubs across the region and has served well over two million breakfasts to local children. In April 2016, Julian Winter was appointed Chief Executive of Huddersfield Town. With a strong background in football club community operations, and after setting up community departments at Sheffield Wednesday and Watford, Julian was keen for HTAFC to have a strong and thriving community programme, which complimented the existing community offer. In December 2016, the Foundation’s Memorandum and Articles of Association were expanded to reflect a new focus on empowering ‘ONE CLUB ONE COMMUNITY’, irrespective of any protected characteristics. In addition to fundraising activities, the Foundation turned its focus to five key areas: Trust; Sport; Inclusion; Education and Health. In an unforgettable display, David Wagner led Huddersfield Town to victory in the 2017 Championship Play-Off Final and promotion to the Premier League. Working in collaboration with the Football Club, the Foundation has gained access to funding from the Premier League, which has dramatically changed the landscape of our reach within the local community. As demand has grown for products and services, so too has the staff body. The Foundation now employees over twenty staff. The staff team has since moved from working at hot desks dotted around the Club’s training ground, the Millers Oil High Performance Complex to our own office facility situated within Leeds Road Sports Complex. The Huddersfield Town Foundation now strives to use the power of the Football Club to engage, inspire and have a positive impact in our local community. We feel we can have the most impact in four key areas: Learning & Education, Health & Healthy Behaviours, Safe Spaces & Places and Movement & Activity.