NORWICH City Football Club was proud to announce a schedule of innovative and inspiring events as part of its third Disability Awareness Week, which took place ahead of the fixture with Blackpool, Saturday, March 1.

The overall aims of the week include highlighting the wide range of facilities and services for supporters at Carrow Road as well as the opportunities to participate in a variety of sporting activities through the Ability Counts programme run by Football in the Community.

Norwich Union, Jarrold Stand tenants Broadland Housing and Club affinity partners RAC all supported this year's Disability Awareness Week. Norwich Union are sponsors of the Community Stand, which is home to the disabled facilities.

The weeklong programme of events started on Tuesday, February 26 with a Disabled Supporters Forum at Carrow Road. This gave disabled supporters the opportunity to ask their questions to a Norwich City panel including Club Chairman Roger Munby, City player Adam Drury and Community Ambassador Jeremy Goss. Key customer service staff were on hand to answer queries about disabled matchday access and how to get involved in football with the Ability Counts scheme.

On Wednesday, February 27, Football in the Community hosted the second stage of their Grand Prix League at Carrow Park (Spaces for Sport facility, which is behind the Jarrold Stand). The two leagues consist of a total of 12 adult teams from various day care centres and colleges. The players have a range of disabilities and competed against each other in 5-a-side matches on the state-of-art 3G surface. Club Chairman Roger Munby, Jeremy Goss and former Canary players Darren Eadie and Mike Milligan came to show their support.

On Saturday, March 1, Carrow Park was the venue again, as FITC held coaching sessions for deaf and visually impaired youngsters before the Championship clash with Blackpool.  Anyone interested in learning about Ability Counts courses should contact Darran Lovell on 01603 761122.

The children involved then watched the match at Carrow Road and formed a guard of honour to welcome both teams out on to the pitch.

Club staff also wore Ability Counts badges and T-shirts and a special information programme was distributed free inside the matchday programme 'On The Ball'.