Ahead of the new football season on 7th August 2021, Wycombe Wanderers Sports and Education Trust (WWSET) are delighted to announce that the Buckinghamshire Council Adoption Team are the latest partner to join our Friends of WWSET project which launched in August 2021.
WWSET Head of Fundraising and Communications, Mark Fawkes, who set up the partnership said, “It was great to work with the team last year and start to build this relationship over what was a difficult period for everyone, and it’s even better now to be able to see more of this partnership come to fruition. I am so looking forward to seeing how we can use our influence as a charity and as a football team to work with the children that most need support and be able to potentially work with the team to improve their lives.”
The Friends of WWSET package was relaunched for the 2021/22 season in August 2021, and we are thrilled to have the Buckinghamshire Councils’ Fostering and Adoption teams on board. Keep your eyes peeled to the WWSET communications channels for further updates on their activities.
The Friends of WWSET programme is now open to creative and forward-thinking companies in the High Wycombe area. For more information, or to sign your company up, click here.
From left to right: Molly Hunt, Adoption & Fostering Recruitment Officer, Clare Talbot, Adoption Assistant Team Manager, and Andy Turner, Fostering Assistant Team Manager
Their press release reads:
On the first day of the new football season, Buckinghamshire Council’s Fostering and Adoption Services launched their partnership with Wycombe Wanderers Sports and Education Trust (WWSET).
The charitable arm of Wycombe Wanderers Football Club runs a range of projects to educate, motivate and inspire local communities and is able to promote the need of more foster carers and adopters for local children through their community links. In addition, working together with the two organisations can help promote the support children and young people can access from the groups and clubs WWSET run in the community.
Buckinghamshire’s Fostering and Adoption Services first forged a partnership with the charitable trust last year but sadly COVID prevented any moves forward in highlighting the need for more foster carers and adopters. As a Friend of WWSET, Buckinghamshire’s Fostering and Adoption Services can access the community links and business communities WWSET has access to. In addition, children in the council’s care will be able to access some of the fantastic sports, health, inclusion, and education-related community projects run by the trust, including mentoring schemes and courses for improving physical and mental wellbeing. The children will also get access to some match day tickets to see Wycombe Wanderers play.
The partnership enables the council to raise awareness of the needs of local children in the county who are waiting to be adopted or are in need of foster care. There are currently 500 children in care in Buckinghamshire and we need dedicated foster carers for our local children. Furthermore, last year there were 26 children adopted.
Julie Ward, Buckinghamshire Council’s Deputy Cabinet Member for Children’s Services said: “In addition to giving many of our children and young people in care access to some of the fantastic programmes provided by WWSET, this important partnership allows us to raise awareness of the need for foster carers and adopters throughout the Wycombe Wanderers community and beyond.
“We are tremendously grateful to the wonderful family of foster carers and adopters that we already have in Buckinghamshire, but we need more local people to come forward and help. We are particularly looking for people who can foster or adopt brothers and sisters, children from black and minority ethnic communities, older children, and those with significant needs. We need as many people to step forward as possible, so we are able to match our children with the right family.”
Mark Fawkes, Head of Fundraising and Communications at WWSET said: “Wycombe Wanderers Sports & Education Trust are delighted to have renewed our partnership with the Buckinghamshire Council’s Fostering and Adoption teams for the coming season. Having worked together last season through a very difficult time, it has been a very exciting couple of weeks as we make plans for how our work together will take shape.
“I am really pleased that our companies have renewed this partnership, and it will be really interesting to see how we can assist each other. We relaunched the Friends of WWSET project so that we could form mutually beneficial links in the community and working with the Fostering and Adoption teams at Buckinghamshire Council is a great link to have.”
