A public meeting will be held in Stark’s Park tonight to set up a new charitable organisation which will use the name of Raith Rovers to carry out community work in and around Kirkcaldy.
The Raith Rovers Community Foundation says it will use the power of football to support community development and community learning to help improve the lives and environment of local people.
The development is supported by Raith Rovers FC and the SPFL Trust, which has given a grant to form the new charity and employ a part-time community programme coordinator to deliver the work.
Tom Phillips, the Raith director who has been chairing the working group which has been working to get the foundation off the ground said: “This is an exciting development for Raith Rovers.
“Many senior football clubs in Scotland have some form of charity, which, although separate from the club, they support to deliver activities that benefit the local area.
“This allows the club to give something back to the area they operate in and draw their supporters from.
“Until now Raith Rovers really did not have the resources to do this type of work and in the past, we relied exclusively on volunteers to do so.
“The grant from the SPFL Trust allows us to not only establish the charity but also to take on a programme coordinator who can drive forward the projects that we want to get up and running.”
Mr Phillips added: “Community foundations linked to other senior clubs in Scotland are involved in many different initiatives, ranging from youth work projects to community-based IT courses for adults to health and well-being programmes for overweight over-40s.
“It all depends on the area and the needs it has that the charity can help to address.”
The public meeting to establish the group will be held in the Raith Suite in Stark’s Park at 7pm.