This month, Everton is celebrating five years of its award-winning equity and inclusion campaign, All Together Now.

Since the initiative was established in 2018, staff, partners, Everton in the Community, Everton Free School and Everton Football College have been working to ensure that everybody who engages with the Club and its official charity feels safe and welcome, whatever their background and life experiences.

As a result, the past five years have seen Everton celebrate plenty of firsts in its championing of equality and do all it can to live up to a commitment made at the launch of All Together Now to create ‘a football family for everyone’.

The campaign’s latest milestone saw the launch of a bespoke merchandise range last week that promotes the values unpinning the Club’s approach to embedding and promoting equity and diversity; Respect, Celebrate, Empower. To build on what has already been achieved, net profits from the range will go towards helping Everton in the Community deliver equity and inclusion education and awareness across its 60+ programmes.

SHOP THE NEW RESPECT, CELEBRATE, EMPOWER RANGE AND RAISE FUNDS FOR EVERTON IN THE COMMUNITY

In March, Everton reiterated its commitment to the Her Game Too campaign when Men’s and Women’s Senior Team captains Seamus Coleman and Gabby George became the first players in the Premier League and Women’s Super League to sign up as official player advocates of the campaign. New women’s skipper Megan Finnigan has since pledged her support, too.

That same month saw a crowd of 22,161 at Goodison Park for the first Barclays Women’s Super League Merseyside derby to be played at the stadium – a Club record attendance that was more than four times the previous best. In the build-up, Everton and Club partners facilitated various giveaways and experiences to encourage and celebrate female participation in sport and reward local schools and amateur teams for supporting the women’s game.

Shortly before that, The People’s Place, the very first dedicated mental health and wellbeing facility connected to a football club, launched just a stone’s throw from Goodison. The facility, officially opened by Evertonian and Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham, houses the charity’s 15 mental health projects and offers a wide array of clinical and non-clinical services.

And, in September, the Blues and technical partner hummel collaborated to launch a limited edition ‘equality shirt’ - a campaign which saw members of Everton’s Men’s, Women’s and Amputee teams join supporters representing the diversity of the Blues’ global fanbase for the promotional photoshoot.

Beyond these activities, the Club has continued to ensure the principles of All Together Now guide its engagement with supporters and fan groups across the globe. In 2022, four separate Supporters’ Club committees were created - the UK, EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa), the Americas and Asia-Pacific – bringing Evertonians closer to the Club through regular, structured dialogue that focuses on issues specific to supporters in their territory.

The Club also continues to facilitate meaningful and regular engagement with the Everton Disabled Supporters’ Association (EDSA) around the experience for supporters on both matchdays and non-matchdays and accessibility plans for its future home on Liverpool's waterfront. Examples of positive action include the introduction of a quiet shopping hour at Everton One for the release of the Club’s third kit earlier this season and ongoing improvements to the accessibility provisions at Goodison Park.

Everton’s commitment to EDI was also reflected in the Club being added to the Liverpool City Region’s inaugural Fair Employment Charter when it was announced in November last year.

Other highlights of All Together Now’s first five years include:

• Hosting an ‘Everton Welcomes’ event with refugees and asylum seekers, in which Men’s and Women’s Senior Team players discussed how they have been shaped by their life experiences and faith.
• Everton winning the Kick It Out Promoting Inclusion Award at the 2021 Northwest Football Awards in recognition of All Together Now’s far-reaching impact.
• Everton Women moving to a permanent new home at Walton Hall Park – making women’s football even more accessible in the heart of the city of Liverpool and close to Goodison Park.
• Everton becoming the first Premier League club to launch a kit using only players from its disability teams.
• Being named a Stonewall Diversity Champion on the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia in May 2020.
• Becoming founding signatories of the FA’s Leadership Diversity Code – a commitment to embedding greater diversity across senior leadership teams, team operations and coaching set-ups.
• Launching the Blue Family campaign following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 to support the most vulnerable and at risk members of the community – an initiative that ultimately benefitted more than 31,500 people across the Liverpool City Region.
• His Royal Highness, the Prince Of Wales, visiting Everton in the Community to meet participants from its award-winning mental health programmes.
• The introduction of a new accessibility platform at Goodison Park offering 45 wheelchair positions, two concession kiosks, four accessible toilets, two companion toilets and some of the best accessibility views in the Premier League.
• Working with Her Game Too to conduct a survey of female Everton supporters about their experiences of attending matchdays and introducing improved visibility of how to report incidents of harassment and abuse.
• The entire Men’s Senior Team and manager Sean Dyche reaffirming their commitment to Everton in the Community by way of a pledge of support.
• Everton achieving the ‘Advanced’ level of the Premier League Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Standard.
• Everton supporting and being represented at the 2022 Liverpool Against Racism festival.
• The Club becoming the first in England to register as a breastfeeding friendly organisation.
• Continued support of national and Premier League/BWSL wide campaigns, including Black History Month, International Women’s Day, No Room For Racism and Rainbow Laces.
  
  

To find out more about All Together Now or to learn more about the impact of the campaign since 2018, visit evertonfc.com/AllTogetherNow.

TO SHOP THE NEW RESPECT, CELEBRATE, EMPOWER RANGE AND RAISE FUNDS FOR EVERTON IN THE COMMUNITY, CLICK HERE.