Babies, battle ropes and Billy Joel: how Doncaster Rovers reach out

Doncaster Rovers’ award-winning foundation has turned the Eco-Power Stadium into a vital community hub

How does a football club serve its local community in 2023? To take a brief survey of the concourse of the Eco-Power Stadium on a chilly autumn afternoon, the answer would appear to involve dumbbells, battle ropes and a big battery-powered speaker playing Billy Joel’s Uptown Girl.

Doncaster Rovers’ Fit Families programme won an EFL award this year. A scheme described by judges as “the first of its kind”, it is run by the club’s charitable foundation. On this day, the focus is on new mothers; the gym equipment and pumped-up 80s hits part of an hour of circuit training (the babies are plonked in the middle in their strollers for the duration). It’s fun, inclusive and free. It’s also providing a social service to the local community that otherwise wouldn’t exist. Continue reading...

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