The EFL's annual Week of Action is taking place from Monday, November 3rd to Friday, November 7th 2025, celebrating the collective impact of football club charities across the league.
While Charlton men’s and women’s first-team players and staff actively support Charlton Athletic Community Trust’s (CACT) activities all year round, this year’s Week of Action provided an opportunity for them to meet and engage with participants from CACT’s award-winning Short Breaks programme.
Short Breaks is delivered across Greenwich and Bexley and provides fun activities for children and young adults with disabilities, while offering vital respite for parents and carers. Sessions are tailored to meet a wide range of needs, making this one of the most trusted and dependable short break programmes in CACT’s areas of delivery.
On a visit to TOCA Social last week, participants welcomed men’s first-team defenders Lloyd Jones and Kayne Ramsay, as well as women’s first-team players Karin Muya and Lucia Lobato. The BBC’s cameras also attended the session at the O2 Arena, giving the players the chance to talk about the impact of CACT’s programmes on national TV.
Jones, who spoke from personal experience about the difference a programme like Short Breaks can make to people’s lives, said: “It’s really important for a club like Charlton and for us as players to come out and give our support for the community programmes.
“Speaking for myself, my nephew has autism and I’ve seen the challenges that he goes through, so I’ll always be the first to put my hand up for something like this to give my support.
“It’s so important that a programme like this exists. It helps the young person, but it also helps the family. I see what my brother goes through on a day-to-day basis and I know that it can be hard - he’s a busy guy and a headteacher of a school. A programme like this allows kids with additional needs to get out of the house, get them active and interacting with people and really helps the parents get some respite as well.
“Ever since I signed for the club, I noticed how much good work the Community Trust does and how much difference the staff make to people’s lives with what they do. They go above and beyond and do a brilliant job.”
Forward Muya, now in her third season in SE7, was also impressed by the impact Short Breaks has on its participants and their families: “It’s been really fun playing the games with some of the kids and learning about the aspects of the programme and what it does to help people.
“Charlton, like every other football club, has a responsibility to the community that we’re in, and to the people in the community, whether they’re vulnerable or disadvantaged, to be able to give back when we can and for us as players to take part in such fun and exciting activities for kids like these has been great.
“The programme is so important because looking after young people with disabilities is such a full-time role. It’s great that we can support them in this way and give relief to those parents and carers.”
In addition to being recognised as part of this year’s EFL Week of Action, Short Breaks won the Programme of the Year Award at last month’s CACT Awards. The impact the programme has on participants and their families helped it earn recognition in a competitive category, which saw several more of CACT’s life-changing programmes nominated.
The programme stood out to judges not only due to this, but also because it has provided a young person from the programme with a volunteer role within CACT, working on Short Breaks. This has helped improve her self-confidence and seen her act as a role model for younger participants. Find out more in the video below.
If you would like to mark the EFL Week of Action by supporting CACT’s work, please click here to make a donation.