Maintaining friendships and being socially active are important parts of healthy, happy ageing. However, people can often find themselves socially isolated and less active when they retire as their lifestyle changes. Extra Time Hubs are take place at 19 EFL Clubs with an ambition to help thousands of people enjoy their retirement years and maximise the positive changes in getting older.

“Extra Time Hubs provide the opportunity to meet people like yourself, to socialise, form new friendships and do the things you enjoy.”

The Hubs are communities of likeminded people.  They include weekly gatherings, often at the football stadium, but also a varied combination of face to face and online groups and activities. 

At the Hub you decide.

You can shape the range of activities on offer. Activities can be virtual or in person. They can vary from quizzes, arts and crafts and music to walking football, table tennis, yoga or just a chat and cup of tea. Every week there can be something else to try. They can be in person or on-line.  Every week there’s something else to try.

Funded by Sport England, the first 11 Extra Time hubs were launched in 2019 to help older people make the most of their retirement years.  Despite the pilot phase including an unprecedented global pandemic, the hubs have been a great success. Around 3,000 people have benefited from the Hubs so far. People like Avril who attends Wigan Athletic Extra Time Hub, she comments,

“I lost my husband in July 2019 after a very long struggle with dementia and up to that point I’d had to give up most of my activities as I was always looking after him and taking care of him up until he went into care. When he passed away, I thought I had to get back into some sort of activities because I had lost touch with everything. I came across the Extra Time Hub and popped in to have a look and thought it looked good and I was hooked from there. I’m very grateful as it dug me out of a very lonely hole.”

Changing the Way Activities are Delivered People in their Retirement Years

We saw that services for older people tended to be small coffee morning groups, bingo sessions or tea dances with music from Vera Lynn. There’s nothing wrong with this, if that what you want to do. However, there’s a new generation of older people who grew up in the 60’s with the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Furthermore many people that were teenagers in the 70s are now retired. So we knew that a culture change was needed. We had an ambitious concept in mind. We still do. We want to create a social community of people in their retirement years who meet regularly to socialise and to do the things they enjoy – not what we tell them they should enjoy.

Find a Hub near you

Hubs are run at Bolton Wanderers, Burton Albion, Cambridge United, Carlton Athletic, Crawley Town, Derby County, Exeter City, Hull City Tigers Trust, Lincoln City, Newport County. Northampton Town, Plymouth Argyle, Port Vale, Preston North End, Rotherham United, Stevenage,  Sunderland,  Shrewsbury Town and Wigan Athletic.