LEYTON ORIENT GAIN FOOTBALL LEAGUE TRUST SILVER AWARD

LOCSP Press Release: Tuesday 14th April 2009

LEYTON ORIENT GAIN FOOTBALL LEAGUE TRUST SILVER AWARD

The Football League Trust has awarded Leyton Orient Community Sports Programme (LOCSP) Silver status for their Community work, marking an excellent few weeks for the charity which also saw them win the ‘Community Club of the Year’ award at last month’s prestigious Football League Awards.

LOCSP will receive £48k to invest into Community activities as part of the Trust’s £1.72m pledge to Community schemes across the country.

LOCSP Chief Executive Neil Taylor said:

“I am absolutely delighted to have achieved this award. Unlike the Football League Community Club of the Year Award, which recognised the outreach work we do in the community, the Football League Trust Silver Award recognises our internal standards; how we are run, the policies and procedures we have in place and work plans, for example.

“This award highlights our quality assurance and self-sustainability, but we won’t rest on our laurels - we have already started working towards the Football League Trust Gold Award, the criteria of which the Football League are currently finalising.”

Football League Trust General Manager Dave Edmundson said: “I would like to heartily congratulate all the clubs who have achieved their Silver award.

“This is a wonderful indication of the new levels of impact and engagement that schemes are bringing to the communities they serve.

“More importantly, this demonstrates the impressive range of projects and initiatives delivered by League clubs in all four themes, and the partnerships being established in both the public and private sectors.”

Edmundson added: “Overall standards are high, and there is no doubt that the Trust, along with the support of all the clubs, intend to maintain this rising trend of improvement.”

To achieve Silver status, the clubs had to fulfil a range of criteria set out by the Trust.

These include:

· An approved level of governance, including representation of at least one senior club executive and at least two strategically-chosen external trustees on the scheme’s board

· At least one themed officer working on projects relating to one of The Football League Trust’s four core themes (social inclusion/ community cohesion, health, education and sports participation)

· A minimum of a three-year business plan showing sustainable programmes being delivered across all four of The Football League Trust’s core themes.

· Evidence of how funding provided by The Football League Trust is being utilized and how it will be used to attract additional funding into the schemes

· Evidence of how schemes are linked into local decision making groups, for example Local Strategic Partnerships

· Evidence on how the schemes works with the Football Club on issues relating to youth development

· A strong player appearance policy

· Charitable status in place

All clubs must also have met The Football League Trust Minimum Charter standard.

For more information, please contact Andrew McSteen, Communications Officer, LOCSP on 020 8556 5973 or email andrew.mcsteen@locsp.org.

Notes to Editors

1. The FL Silver Award was awarded on Wednesday 1st April.

2. The FL Silver Award application period started in September 2008 and ended on Tuesday 31 March 2009.

3.The FL Gold Award will be launched on Thursday 4th April 2009 at the national Football League Conference in Doncaster, with it likely to be awarded in March/April 2010.