The exhausted man who walked in off Spellow Lane, 100 yards from Goodison Park, and into the warmth of the Everton In The Community Hub felt forsaken by society, by the services, by the state. The man was not from Merseyside but he had heard of Everton In The Community and knew they helped the needy, the bereft. “I didn’t know where else to go,” he said to staff.

Everton are known as the people’s club for a reason, for their compassion, their sense of community, and not simply locally. Everton In The Community (EITC) is a huge enterprise, employing 125 full-time staff, 70 casual staff and more than 145 volunteers, working on more than 40 projects in more than 300 locations, tackling knife and