Norwich City has been named the Johnstone’s Paint East Community Club of the Year at The Football League Awards 2015.
The club received the award at the gala ceremony at The Brewery, London, on Sunday evening in front of over 600 guests from clubs, sponsors and the football industry.The Football League Awards 2015 mark the 10th year of the awards, which celebrate on and off pitch excellence across The League’s 72 clubs. This year all 72 clubs were nominated for at least one award.
2014 was a landmark year for Norwich City’s Community Sports Foundation as their Sporting Light Appeal passed the million-pound fundraising target, and the scheme as a whole engaged with more than 31,000 participants. The achievement of the preliminary level Kick it Out Equality Standard and introduction of the Community Hero programme have further developed the football club’s relationship with the community, which is integral to the club’s key values.
This category recognises the community schemes that have best demonstrated success at engaging with the local community in the 2014 calendar year. Norwich City are one of five regional winners, with Derby County taking the national award. In deciding both the regional and overall winners, judges considered the objectives of the scheme, breadth of delivery, innovation, impact and achievements as well as the leading individual project from the last 12 months.
The Johnstone’s Paint Community Club of the Year Award is managed by the Football League Trust. The Trust brings a national perspective to the work of the 72 community trusts based Football League clubs, sharing ideas and best practise to enable football to be a real catalyst for change in many different ways.
Together this network engages with over a million people a year, using the unique connection football clubs have with local people to deliver projects under the key themes of Sport, Health, Education and Inclusion that positively affect lives in communities across England and Wales.
Shaun Harvey, Chief Executive of The Football League, said: "The 10th Football League Awards has given us the opportunity to reward outstanding performance, both on and off the pitch, during what has been a memorable Football League season.
"Each of our winners thoroughly deserves this recognition and, once again, we've seen exceptional levels of talent, dedication and achievement across all our nominees."
The Football League Awards 2015 were streamed live on The Football League's official YouTube channel and website, while highlights will be shown on Sky Sports 1 on Monday evening at 6:15pm and 9:15pm.
To find out more about The Football League Awards, and for a full list of Award categories, please visit www.FLAwards.com or search for #FLAwards on Twitter, and other social media.