Redrow tycoon Steve Morgan has given £750,000 via his charitable foundation to Everton in the Community and that is doubled to £1.5m by Government matched funding. Tony McDonough reports
Redrow tycoon Steve Morgan has donated £750,000 via his charitable foundation to help Liverpool’s most vulnerable during the COVID-19 pandemic.
And matched funding from the Government’s Community Match Challenge has doubled the figure to £1.5m The cash will go to Everton in the Community to increase its essential services to vulnerable people through enhanced community support, with a specific spotlight on mental health and education.
As Everton FC’s official charity, it has partnered with the Steve Morgan Foundation to collaboratively deliver an early intervention programme in south Liverpool to tackle the barriers facing young people in attaining a good education.
And this new COVID-19 focused match-funding will see Everton in the Community able to work closely with the foundation to further deliver intense programmes of support over the course of the next six months for people directly affected by the pandemic.
It will also allow the charity to build on its award-winning mental health provision and introduce an accreditation framework to ensure people in need are accessing support that is safe and effective.
The has charity’s plans to build and deliver a purpose-built mental health facility – The People’s Place – in the heart of Liverpool 4. This forms part of its wider legacy project that will coincide with building of the club’s new stadium in Liverpool’s docklands.
Everton in the Community chief executive, Richard Kenyon, said: “This funding will enable us to tackle some of the social inequalities in our city head-on and allow us to help more people in need.
“Thanks to Steve Morgan Foundation and the government’s Community Match Challenge initiative, Everton in the Community can have an even greater positive impact on the lives of thousands people across Liverpool city region.”
Mr Morgan, a lifelong Liverpool FC fan and founder of the Redrow housebuilding group, added: “My trustees and I have seen first-hand the wide ranging grassroots support that Everton in the Community delivers across Liverpool city region.
“COVID-19 has made a deep impact on communities which were already experiencing significant disadvantage and proactive, professionally delivered targeted support is needed now more than ever.”