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DCCP was established from a Community Stakeholder Group set up within RamsTrust to study and record the nature of the relationship between DCFC and its community. Its formal association with DCFC, and the ending of the association with RamsTrust, happened on 8 May 2003 at a meeting with Jim Fearn (then head of Media,) Football in the Community, Playing for Success, Rammie, the match day programme editor, and representatives from schools, hospitals, local businesses and places of worship. It was made clear that although DCFC supported the aims and interests of the Stakeholder Group, the public political stance of RamsTrust was contrary to the involvement of the Supporters Trust on club premises and with club personnel and documentation. In September 2003, DCFC announced their support for the formation of the DCCP and outlined its association with the Customer Charter, an obligatory requirement by all Football Clubs within the Football League and the Premier League A feedback weekend was held in that September and on 4 November 2003, the DCCP arranged a School Councillors' Conference which was held at Pride Park Stadium. The recommendations from the School Councillors' conference were shared with the community representatives within and outside DCFC so that community aspirations might be given a higher priority at DCFC. There is also a video available of the ideas put forward by the young people present. Meetings were held with a number of DCFC staff to guage the response to the recommendations at the Conference, including then manager George Burley, and with Academy Education Officer Bill Morley in order to discover what already existed at Derby County, and where it was feasible to improve communication links with the wider community. As a result of a presentation by John Danks from the Learning and Skills Council, at a DCCP meeting with club staff and other representatives, a Community Forum was arranged and held in June 2004 at Pride Park Stadium involving a wide number of organisations. The forum was held so that community aspirations could be understood, firmer links established, and ultimately, funded projects to be explored and developed to support the use of the facilities at DCFC by community groups. In October 2004, the DCCP were involved in the staging of a "Rams against Racism" schools forum to discuss why under-represented groups do not attend football matches as part of the Club's involvement in the FA's annual Kick Out Racism campaign. The Club works on anti-racism throughout the year but this event was arranged specifically to help promote the FA's annual campaign to raise awareness of the issue. This event was very well attended with schoolchildren and parents even queueing at some schools to subscribe for the limited number of places available to each school. All the feedback from the children was captured and documented and this was then analysed and grouped into a summary document. A review document was then produced. The event was reported on the FA website. The DCCP was approached by the Derby City Partnership in April 2005 to speak to the Club to see if it would be interested in staging a celebration of Pride Park, perhaps through an Open Doors event, to mark the development of Pride Park and the stadium which we they wished to highlight in their Derby City Partnership Week. The DCCP was happy to oblige and the Bloomer & Beyond exhibition took place at Pride Park Stadium on 30 June 2005. The event was mainly planned and managed by Jim Fearn and his Community Team at Derby County but DCCP members helped int he planning of the publicity and on the day. View the original constitution |