Read the Trust’s Impact Report for 2025, including inspiring stories from participants of various programmes, here:
Keith Jackson, deputy head of community, has spoken on the importance of making people aware of the Trust’s work in the community. He said: “It’s absolutely essential, I think a lot of people aren’t quite sure what the Community Trust does.
“The impact report shows that first-hand, with stories from people who have taken part in our projects, not only showing what we do, but also how that’s affected their lives. Stories come from the young people who come to our primary school sessions, to the people who attend our Senior Spireites sitting exercise classes.
“Some stories about the people in the community that help us, our friends at the Trust. And fantastically, this year, one story about the Trust breaking a Guinness World Record for the most people participating in a chair-based exercise session.”
Keith also commented on the backing from the club. He said: “Chairman of the Trust, Mike Goodwin, opens it with his comments on the year, but to have Ashley Kirk on board, talking about the impact that the Community Trust has had on the football club, is really important because as well as the club and its vital role in this town, we’re able to support the club not just on match days but throughout the year.
“Vice versa, too. We get fantastic support from the club, and Ash and the board are really positive about the impact that we have. They’ve seen the impact report; their feedback is that it’s really, really positive, and they’re delighted with the work that we’re doing in the community.”
After touching on it previously, Keith also praised the wide range of participants from different backgrounds and age groups that the Trust affect, explaining: “We are here to find the people that are hard to find.
“We’re celebrating people that are recovering from addiction, celebrating young people on our disability football pathway, those in our Football and Education programme, and as I said, our Senior Spireites too.
“Perhaps we don’t reflect enough on the work that we’re doing, and sometimes it’s nice to be able to sit back, read this and realise, this is why we do what we do. There are some life-changing stories in there, and that’s vitally important to share.”
