Community engagement a key in Halifax Panthers’ ethos

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Community engagement has always been a part of the Halifax Panthers ethos, and with the addition of Community engagement officer Jack Duffy in May 2021, it has gained a lot of traction.

Duffy came to the Panthers with a background in sports as he was the communications director for Team Northwest Territories in Canada whilst also managing a sporting grant “Kidsport”.

With a huge passion for sports development, he has managed to turn his passion into a career. He takes a lot of pride in creating positive experiences through sport. With experience in similar roles, he wanted to challenge himself in the Rugby League and the UK professional sports environment with the Panthers a perfect fit.

Recently, Duffy has pioneered the H20 roadshow which has so far reached 13 schools, engaging with 1,764 children, relaying the important message of hydration, with his catchy mantra of “it is great to hydrate”. With the support of the club’s mascot, the men’s and women’s team players, he wanted to ensure the memory children have of hydration relates to their local club.

His vision was to create a unique learning experience for children in schools that will help build up a rapport throughout Calderdale, with the aim to create partnerships and programming of all kinds. This has proven successful with two of the schools taking part in the roadshow on a weekly basis.

The water or the funding for the water has been provided by 17 local businesses that have each donated £40 or more. They were given the opportunity to join Duffy handing out water to see how their donations are being utilised, thus building a partnership with not only local schools but local businesses alike.

The response from schools has been fantastic from teachers, parents, children and Panthers fans. The excitement of a dancing Panther high fiving them at the school gates has created a real buzz around the roadshow.  So much so that other schools have started to make contact on the back of this which shows the relationship with the community has massively solidified.

Duffy has plans to continue the drop-in style sessions at schools with varying health promotions and going forward are looking to have children more physically active whilst the Panthers are on site. Halifax Panthers are also on the hunt for mascot names which is something that they will be bringing to schools in the near future.

Another of his brainchildren came in the form of “Try High” in partnership with Invictus Wellbeing to work on a project promoting emotional well being through rugby activities. They found out about the ‘Healthy Holidays’ program that allowed funding for children on free school meals to take part in physical activity.

“We saw this as a fantastic platform to begin this project and approached other community groups to join us to ensure that we could provide a well rounded and polished program that would not only give a sporting experience but would also enrich the lives of children that needed it, through building life skills and independence techniques.”

The camp was funded through the Community Foundation for Calderdale, under the initiative that was created by Marcus Rashford.

Each week involves a full day of Rugby League, giving children an introduction to the basic skills. It is also cross-referenced throughout the week with different emotional well-being workshops and multi-sport programming.

Rugby is a prominent feature throughout the week through drills and team-building activities, with the players of the men’s team and Rugby League Coach and Halifax Panthers Women prop Kara Colvin.

Since July, in five different camps across Calderdale, the project has reached over 135 children and the feedback from parents has been fantastic, 93% of parents said that they believed their child had learnt something and/or got something out of the camp and 100% of participants stated that their experience was four out of five or five out of five.

Duffy has thanked the Halifax Panthers for the opportunity to put his ideas into practice.

“I’m very lucky to have the platform that I have here at the Panthers and I work hard to ensure I do it justice.

“We are the only professional Rugby League club in Calderdale and I want to really push rugby out of its comfort zone and into areas of our communities that’s it’s not been before”

There are even more ideas coming up with after-school clubs now taking place in the community.

“Absolutely! We are now running an after-school club and an all-girl girl’s rugby program in two schools in Calderdale with emails going back and forth to expand into two more.”

He will continue to work with the Halifax Panthers Academy at Calderdale College, extending the bond between the youth of the community.

With that in mind, Duffy was delighted to announce that funding has been finalised for a violence reduction project that they have been working on with the Halifax Opportunities Trust, The Artworks and Himmat which will see them creating murals through playing rugby with balls dipped in paint.

It will be predominately aimed at teenagers that are finding things difficult and will be a way for them to express themselves and speak openly in a safe environment.

The Panthers will also be fundraising in partnership with Pulse Radio and their mission Christmas initiative as we get closer to December.

Duffy is opening gateways to schools in all areas of Calderdale to bring people into the sport through different social interactions that will filter into the experience of watching the men’s, women’s or wheelchair teams in their league campaigns and creating memories at the Shay Stadium.

“I want to ensure that those who may not get the opportunity to experience live sport or physical activity to have memories of positive experience in their mind for a lifetime and always look back and relate that memory to the Halifax Panthers.”

The Panthers are making strong pathways in the community and are always looking to bring new and exciting ways to get children into sport. If you would like to know more or to have the Panthers visit your school, please contact Jack Duffy through this email  – Jackduffy@halifaxpanther.co.uk

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