A NEW report has highlighted the 'absolutely magnificent' role Colchester United and their Football in the Community charity partner have played during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The U's have today unveiled their Community Impact Report, which has emphasised the huge impact Colchester United Football in the Community (CUFITC) have had within north Essex, during a testing 2020.

The Shrub End-based charity have been assisting the NHS and the local community as much as possible with 35 different community projects continued or started, last year.

CUFITC Head of Community Corin Haines was rightly proud of his team's huge efforts in 2020 and knows that further work will still have to be done across the coming year.

He said: “During the past year, everyone has been affected by the pandemic in some way but the response of the club and our staff has been absolutely magnificent and truly humbling.

“We started 2020 in a really positive position, fast forward three months and those plans were being ripped up and replaced by a new ‘’Part of the Solution’’ strategy in response to the situation we were faced with.

“Huge credit should go to the skills and expertise of our workforce, who have managed to successfully ensure we continue to enrich and more importantly since March 2020, protect people’s lives through sport, health and education in new and innovative ways.

“We entered 2021 acutely aware that factors beyond our control will continue to play a large part in our future. We will need to continue being agile, flexible and recognise that there are likely to be bumps in the road.

“I hope you find that our ‘Unite Our Communities Impact Report 2020’ provides a beneficial insight into the work and impact we are engaged in within our communities.

“Myself and the entire workforce look forward to another year of strengthening our bonds and continuing to use the unparalleled power of football for good.”

NHS training and COVID-19 testing took place at the JobServe Community Stadium, with vaccinations now being carried out as well, whilst the FITC team got straight to work with what they could do to help.

Across the year, more than 250,000 engagements with participants were carried out and over £650,000 of financial investment was put into the local community.

FITC offers four main strands of delivery - Sports Participation, Education, Health and Inclusion and Facility Development.

They currently deliver services more than 450 hours of provision to 7,500 people, each week.

To view the report, go to https://www.cu-fc.com/siteassets/club-pdfs/community-pdfs/2020-impact-report-web.pdf