Wycombe Wanderers FC are delighted to announce the launch of a collaborative new project called “All Quarters”, thanks to a £16,000 grant from the Premier League Fans Fund.
The project aims to work with people from four underrepresented groups in order to improve the match day experience at Adams Park for existing and new supporters.
The groups that the All Quarters project is seeking to engage with are:
· Women and girls
· People with disabilities
· People who are LGBTQIA+
· People from minority ethnic backgrounds
The project will be carried out by the Wycombe Wanderers family – Wycombe Wanderers FC, Wycombe Wanderers Trust and Wycombe Wanderers Sports & Education Trust – who will host 12 consultation and learning events at Adams Park over the 2021/22 season. These events will be used to gather feedback on people’s views of the Adams Park match day environment to try and understand if people feel it’s inclusive, are individual needs catered for and how the stadium could be more welcoming.
This feedback will be used by the Wycombe Wanderers family to make positive changes that will ultimately lead to a more appealing environment and an improved experience for all who visit Adams Park.
Wycombe Wanderers FC Director Trevor Stroud had this to say about the All Quarters project:
“We’re extremely grateful to the Premier League Fans Fund for this grant and we’re sure it will allow us to make positive changes for the benefit of everybody who visits Adams Park. We’re a community club and initiatives such as this will enable us to truly connect with and provide for all of our current and future fans which can only be a good thing.”
Following the consultation and learning events, which will be very relaxed and informal in nature, the All Quarters project will spend six months working with the under-represented groups to facilitate the creation of supporter groups or develop and grow existing ones.
The funding will support the sustainability of the project by training a cohort of volunteers to lead and manage the outlined groups. The new groups will also develop a range of match day and non-match day events, providing a focal point for the groups to promote, share and develop fan-led opportunities.
The first consultation and learning event will be held on the evening of Tuesday 3rd August from 6.30pm – 8.00pm with the subsequent 11 events held at the same time on the first Tuesday of every month thereafter. From August 2022 until January 2023 the sessions will switch to concentrating on the facilitation of the aforementioned supporter groups.
Each month the consultation and learning events will focus on one of the under-represented groups. However, we would still welcome attendance from anybody who identifies with any of the other groups.
The All Quarters project has kindly been funded by the Premier League Fans Fund which exists to support professional football clubs to:
· Improve the relationship between their fans and the club
· Improve the way football supporters engage with each other
· Improve fans’ experience of the game
Wycombe Wanderers Trust Chairman Nigel Kingston added:
“This is a project that will see all arms of Wycombe Wanderers working together in order to ensure that the club and stadium really is for everybody – we are looking forward to the project beginning and hope that as many people as possible engage with it.”
For more information on the All Quarters project, please see the following link to the Wycombe Wanderers FC website: https://www.wycombewanderers.co.uk/fans/all-quarters/
To sign up to attend the first consultation and learning event, please email Wycombe Wanderers Sports & Education Trust representative Paul Foley on paul.foley@wwfc.com.
We look forward to meeting as many people as possible at the first All Quarters event on 6th July and to hearing everybody’s important views on how to make Wycombe Wanderers FC better for all.
*Please note that although the All Quarters project is focusing engagement on the named under-represented groups we would also welcome attendance at all events from anybody else who has an interest, regardless of whether they align with any of the four priority groups.
