Throughout April, Derby County Football Club and Community Trust will be supporting Amnesty UK’s Football Welcomes campaign.

The Football Welcomes programme celebrates the contribution players with a refugee background make to the beautiful game, and the positive role football can play in bringing people together and creating more welcoming communities. 

We are encouraging fans to collect items from the below list, which will then be made up into Welcome Packs and distributed through local charities.

Download list here

Families can also colour in the ‘Welcome to Derby’ postcard to be added to each box.

Derby County Community Trust work with the Derby Refugee Advice Centre to offer regular footballing sessions to refugees and asylum seekers through the PL Kicks programme.

Gavin Lewis, Inclusion Development Manager at Derby County Community Trust, said: “We’re really looking forward to getting behind the Football Welcomes initiative once again. This year, we’re working across the Trust to include all departments to ensure we are all pulling together to make a difference to refugees and asylum seekers who we are welcoming into the city.”

Participants from the Trust’s PL Kicks, PL Primary Stars and NCS programmes will collaborate to create the packs during the month.

The Football Welcomes campaign will also be celebrated at the Bristol City home fixture on 23rd April, where our participants will be invited to attend thanks to tickets provided through the Rams Family Fund.

To support the initiative, donations will be accepted at the Community Trust office through April, each Thursday from 11am-2pm. Please note, you don’t have to donate a full box, items donated will be packaged up to distribute.