Bradford City Community Foundation hold special day at game

The home game against Accrington a week on Saturday will be marked by a series of events highlighting the Foundation’s work in the city.

A parade around the University of Bradford Stadium pitch at half-time will see hundreds of people from across the city, including pupils from local schools, competition winners, rising stars from local junior clubs, attendees from social outreach groups and many more, united in celebrating the impact of the Foundation.

As the parade takes place, Foundation CEO and former City striker Ian Ormondroyd will deliver a speech from the middle of the pitch.

• Ormondroyd on his long service as City's foundation head

The capacity opening of the TL Dallas Community Stand, which will house nearly 1,500 people from across the Foundation’s projects, programmes and partners, will cheer on the Bantams.

A joint venture between the Foundation, City and long-time club sponsor TL Dallas and Co Ltd, the Bradford end stand is now a dedicated, alcohol-free community stand which welcomes non-typical, usually first-time fans from areas of high social deprivation to the ground.

The Community Foundation, which was established in 1988 by the PFA, has been under the stewardship of Ormondroyd for the last 25 years.

He said: “We are grateful to the club for giving us the opportunity to celebrate our work, front and centre, in the unique atmosphere of a City home game.

“Since establishing ourselves as the official charity of the club, and seeing our organisation expand from a handful of staff to a large operation which delivers sporting and non-sporting programmes and projects across the city, we are proud to have become a key cog in the Bradford system.

“The Takeover Day is our chance to celebrate all we have already achieved, and to establish further connections and awareness among the City fanbase and members of the local community, as we continue to grow in size and influence.”

City's Community Foundation staff led by Ian Ormondroyd (Image: Thomas Gadd)

In the past year alone, the Foundation has worked with over 23,000 participants, across 44 individual projects.

Among these was the establishment of a dedicated food bank, alongside partners Penny Appeal, City and City Women and Girls, and local business Bradford Lifts; the opening of a dementia and Parkinson’s-friendly Friendship Cafe which runs weekly; numerous social action and awareness campaigns; and ongoing national campaigns run in conjunction with the Premier League, National Citizen Service and the Peer Action Collective.

The Foundation has set up its own in-house education provision, allowing students to combine their studies with football, and is running the newly-opened Bantams Clubhouse, a dedicated junior fanzone.

City CEO Ryan Sparks said: “Our dedicated Community Takeover fixture will highlight the importance of the club’s impact in the local and wider communities.

Ian Ormondroyd has done the club's community job for 25 years (Image: Chris Henson)

“Its aim is to showcase the incredible, vital work the Foundation undertakes every single day as the official charity of Bradford City.

“We work closely, together, to ensure we carry out our duties as key stakeholders in the city of Bradford.”

City chief commercial officer Davide Longo added: “It’s imperative that the club and Foundation are working in collaboration.

“Providing matchday opportunities such as this initiative can only benefit children and young people by enriching their lives in a positive way.”