Manager Marco Silva and Director of Football Marcel Brands joined the full first-team squad at Everton in the Community’s [EitC] annual Showcase in pledging their ongoing support to the charity and its work by signing a commitment pledge.

Hosted at USM Finch Farm, this year’s Showcase event saw the entire squad involved for the first time and highlighted the life-changing and life-saving work of the Club’s official charity and saw the team split into five groups, each spending time finding out more about one flagship programme from each of the charity’s five pillars.

Silva and Brands both spent time at each of the five activity stations, finding out more about the programme and its work as well as meeting participants who directly benefit from it.

“From the first day I was here, I felt this club was a family,” said Silva.

“This connection is important and something we want to build.

“It is really impressive how our club can support our community. It is a pleasure for the staff and players to be part of this afternoon.

“It is important for the players, too, they understand and enjoy how the Club wants to support the community.”

The Showcase also saw EitC announce its five new player ambassadors who will each take responsibility for championing the work of the charity across Merseyside and beyond.

Disability ambassador Seamus Coleman joined Michael Keane, Yerry Mina, Andre Gomes and James McCarthy in taking part in a coaching session with the charity’s Down syndrome team, focusing on skills and drills before a short-sided game.

Meanwhile, Health and Wellbeing ambassador Leighton Baines joined Tom Davies, Cenk Tosun, Morgan Schneiderlin and Maarten Stekelenburg in meeting participants from EitC’s Imagine Your Goals programme. Using the power of football to positively address mental health issues, the five players participated in an interactive and motivational team-talk with the young men, all based on increasing aspirations.

At the opposite side of the indoor pitch, Sports Development ambassador Jordan Pickford got to grips with finding out more about the Premier League Primary Stars programme. Accompanied by Lucas Digne, Mason Holgate, Idrissa Gana Gueye and Oumar Niasse, the Blues stars joined children from a local primary school in an interactive physical activity session focused on numeracy and literacy.

Richarlison, the charity’s new Youth Engagement ambassador, joined team-mates Gylfi Sigurdsson, Bernard, Kieran Dowell, Jonjoe Kenny, Kurt Zouma and Ademola Lookman in finding out more about the work EitC does in empowering young people to effect positive social change when they spent time with young people from the charity’s Kicks programme. Delivered across Merseyside every night of the week, Kicks provides a safe environment for 5-18-year-olds to have fun and raise their aspirations and confidence.

And to round off the five activity stations, Employment, Education and Training Ambassador Theo Walcott joined Phil Jagielka, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Joao Virginia and Beni Baningime in meeting local secondary school children who participate in the charity’s Premier League Enterprise programme. The charity works to provide local people with routes into various education, employment and training opportunities and its Enterprise programme uses the Club’s business model to help young people learn about business and the world of work.

Currently celebrating its 30th anniversary, EitC is at the forefront of social intervention across Merseyside and delivers more than 40 programmes tackling a range of social issues, supporting more than 20,000 individuals a year.