Concerns facing residents in the Paget, Warwick and Southampton communities will be discussed when the presidents of the four clubs in the parishes — Paget Community Club, Warwick Workmen’s, PHC Zebras and Southampton Rangers — hold a public discussion next Monday evening.

The forum, entitled “Are We Having an Impact”, will be held at Warwick Workman’s Club starting at 6.30pm, with Glenn Fubler serving as the moderator.

The four club presidents, Mike Stovell, of Paget, Sherwyn Richardson, from Warwick, Gerri Saltus, the Southampton president, and Jonathan Ball, from PHC, will be the panellists as they discuss the roles of their clubs in the communities and their challenges, strengths and visions for the future.

“Sometimes people look at football and cricket in a negative light, but if you look under the hood there is a lot of positives that come from it,” Ball said.

“It’s about holding ourselves to account and trying to have as great an impact as we can within our communities, so it will be beneficial that we collaborate and talk.

“If you look at the respective [club] programmes each have an impact, but as far as my vision for PHC we want to grow the level of impact that we have. We have various initiatives such as our scholarship programme which has expanded under the PHC Foundation.

“We have the community fun day, and each of our coaches are required to go into the schools each year to check on our young players to make sure their grades are up to par. If their grades are not adequate then they cannot participate.”

PHC played two matches at PHC Field this season, but their opening league fixture on September 27 against North Village will be the official reopening of the ground. The field, which is also home to the club’s cricket team, had been closed for 17 years before football returned last season.

“People are excited to see the club progress because when we progress then we can have a greater impact on the community,” Ball said.

“Opening the field creates a better foundation financially which helps out a lot, along with help from our sponsors Bermuda Healthcare Services and Ultimate Imaging, which has been vital to ensure that our programmes run.” As a charitable initiative, canned food items will be collected at events in the lead up to the match against North Village, with collected items going to the Eliza DoLittle Society.

A netball match, softball game, and a special happy hour at the original PHC clubhouse on 81 Reid Street next Friday from 5.30pm will form part of the week’s activities.

On Saturday, September 26, PHC field will host both a Masters and PDL football match at 1pm and 3pm respectively before the week of activities culminates in the opening league fixture of the season the next day.

North Village won the first match back at the ground last season, but PHC will be looking to start their campaign off on a positive note.