The Everton Foundation have been named Community Scheme Project of the Yearat the MBNA North West Football Awards, in recognition of their Imagine Your Goals initiative which is now being rolled out nationally as part of Time to Change in partnership with the Premier League and Sport Relief.

Everton's project, which also won a Sport Industry Award earlier this year, aims to improve social inclusion and wellbeing for people with mental health problems, as well as tackling stigma and discrimination.

Imagine Your Goals runs accessible football sessions for mental health service users throughout Merseyside.  The programme has been a stepping stone to increased wellbeing, self-esteem, community participation, training and employment: many service users have completed coaching qualifications and taken on coaching responsibilities, or enrolled on the Everton Volunteer Programme to assist other community projects. At least four service users are now in full-time education and employment as a direct result of the skills and qualifications gained on the project.

The project also raises awareness of mental health issues within the community, through tournaments for teams from local businesses and match-day awareness events.

It has been the blueprint for the national Imagine Your Goals programme that Time to Change is running in partnership with Sport Relief and the Premier League. Under the scheme 16 clubs are running similar projects that use football to encourage people with mental health problems to play an active role in their community and to develop opportunities to bring people with and without mental health problems together.