Hornets At Home: Two New Initiatives Launch

‘Phone Your Friend’ and ‘Checking In’ are two official new strands now joining Watford FC’s much-loved and much-used ‘Hornets At Home’ scheme.

Originally set up in March last year to help those supporters who were isolating, Hornets At Home proved to be a great success; more than 300 supporters volunteered their services and more than 4,000 supporters received calls from the club to offer support.

We extended the service to become a permanent part of the club’s offering to supporters in November last year, as many supporters will have been vulnerable and isolated before this started and the challenges presented in recent months will now remain with us for some time to come.

The scheme’s success was built on volunteers from both inside and outside the club providing practical support to those supporters. Our volunteers have helped with tasks as wide-ranging as collecting and delivering groceries, mowing lawns and assembling furniture.

The club’s sense of family and community is renowned within the football industry and amongst our supporters, so these further extensions of our services seem only natural.

Both new initiatives have to some degree been regular features of the support provided to date under the Hornets At Home umbrella.

For those supporters who are feeling lonely, or just want to pick up the phone and have a chat, the Supporter Services team will be delighted to hear you ‘Checking In’ with them.

So simply give us a call, or drop us a line with your contact details to the email address below and we’ll call you back at a time convenient to you.

And we’ll be continuing to make outgoing calls, too. So don’t be surprised if you’re hearing from us; just ‘Checking In’ to see how you’re doing.

In addition, for those who prefer to see the people they’re talking with, we’ll be holding regular Zoom calls with a mix of current and former players. Details of when those will take place and how to join in with these informal group chats will be published soon.

Know a friend or family member who’d appreciate a one-to-one conversation? Or you feel really needs one right now?

Whether it’s for reasons good (birthday, anniversary, special achievement, etc.) or bad (depressed, worried, alone, scared, etc.), let us know the story behind your request and we’ll then give you a ring to discuss things a bit further before allocating someone appropriate to make that call.

Likely, it’ll be one of our first-team squad or a well-known ex-player – maybe even one of our newly-commissioned Hornets Ambassadors.

We also wish to be able to provide additional support on an ad hoc basis to anyone who might request our help from the groups below. The list is not intended to be exhaustive and we will be able to provide additional support on an ad hoc basis to anyone who might request our help:

• Support for families of bereaved supporters
• Supporters with mental health problems
• Supporters who live alone
• Supporters with a disability
• Elderly supporters

In order to request help for whatever reason great or small, or volunteer to provide support, please tell the Supporter Services Team the reason behind your request in the first instance: supporters@watfordfc.com. Remember to include a contact telephone number so we can talk it through with you and make sure our phone call comes from the most appropriate type of person.