There’s been some very exciting developments at Reds in the Community in what has been another great year for the charity.

Firstly, we have developed the facilities here at Oakwell for our charitable staff, allowing all of our employees to work under the same roof.

Before this, we were fragmented around the stadium particularly in the case of our education team.

Our expansion has also allowed us to open up new classroom space for the use across all of our themes and programmes.

Alongside this, we have delivered over £1 million worth of charity work in the last 12 months for the first time ever.

That’s not to say we are perfect yet but it is an indication of how diverse and far reaching our work is.

With that, we need more support at board level so we’ve successfully recruited Simon Biltcliffe and Sally Hegarty to the board of trustees.

Simon is the CEO of marketing company Webmart and is also a very well-respected TED speaker.

Sally is a qualified solicitor specialising in the area of family/children law and will be able to provide her legal and safeguarding expertise at board level.

They’re two highly-talented local people who are so passionate about Barnsley Football Club and what we do off the pitch in the community.

I’m sure that they will both be great additions as we continue to expand and grow moving forward.

As ever, we are very grateful for the exposure that our programme notes give us and we have also invested in the media and communications side of the charity.

More and more people are seeing the fantastic work we complete on a daily basis within the community thanks to the ongoing growth of our social media presence.

Like with most things that happen at Reds in the Community, it is the staff who are out there at the forefront and delivering that take all of the credit.

Ultimately, they are the ones who are doing all the hard work, being passionate and creative and impacting on local people’s lives.

Finally, I would like to wish everyone a merry Christmas and a happy new year on behalf of myself, the trustees and the staff of Reds in the Community.

We look forward to improving the lives of even more local people in 2019!

Wayne Bullimore – CEO