Charlton Athletic have won an award! They have been named the London Checkatrade Community Club of the Year.

As part of the 2018 EFL Awards, Charlton will be recognised and celebrated in Parliament for their outstanding community work.

The award is thanks to the exceptional work of the Charlton Athletic Community Trust and they will be joined alongside five other regional winners at the House of Commons on March 12.

Charlton Athletic’s Community Trust impressed the judges with their ground-breaking work to form CACT Invicta FC, the first ever professional football club trust in the UK to establish, launch and affiliate a dedicated LGBT friendly football team.

CACT Invicta FC has helped raise awareness through key initiatives including; Charlton v Homophobia tournament with 600 participants, Stonewall One Goal rainbow laces campaign and Charlton red, white and black day – a dedicated home game promoting community cohesion.

Charlton Athletic Community Trust CEO, Jason Morgan, said: “Last year was a landmark year for CACT: we celebrated our 25th anniversary since the launch of Charlton’s community scheme with a series of fundraising events, generating over £88,000 to invest back into local community projects.

“We published our first organisation-wide impact report that found our work has a social value of over £31 million, and we were proud to be the first Community Trust in the country to formally establish and affiliate a LGBT friendly football team.

“CACT is delighted to be the London Community Club of the Year Regional Winner for 2018, in recognition of these and other achievements as well as the hard work and dedication of all our staff.”

Charlton manager Karl Robinson said: “Jason and his team are unbelievable at what they do. I’ve been at a lot of football clubs and I’ve never seen so much detail going into the community, trying to help so many people with so many different issues.

“There is a real belief at this football club in the sense of the community.”