Deputy head of community, Keith Jackson, has reflected on the Trust’s highlights over the calendar year across multiple programmes and departments, starting with a Premier League Charitable Fund Foundation event.
He said: “We were invited to their 15th anniversary in Westminster, which was a fantastic event and a privilege for both me and Jayne (Bacon) to be invited down there. They announced the change of branding to PLCF Foundation and celebrated the work that they’ve done in the last 15 years, and that we’ve done as a Community Trust.”
First-team player visits have taken place regularly in 2025. Keith said: “We usually are in primary schools or going to care homes. We’ve done chair-based exercise classes, several different events with the players and I think the players and the staff understand their value in the community.”
BRM Solicitors ran a ‘Will Month’ during February, where all will writing fees were donated to the Trust, raising over £12,000. “It’s enabled us to run a lot of our projects this year, some of which we run because they’re the right thing to do, but they don’t necessarily make a healthy surplus,” said Keith.
Commenting on new Friends of the Trust, Keith added: “West Special Fasteners and Wesco Anixter both came on board as new Friends of the Trust this year. And both haven’t just come in and given donations – they’ve gone above and beyond for us.
“They’ve opened their buildings for our students to go and have a tour and have a look around and really see things that they wouldn’t get to see ordinarily. When you become a Friend, it’s not just about making a donation – which is huge for us and makes a big difference – it’s about what they can do for the community as well.”
The annual Trust awards took place again this year and Keith commented: “It’s three events in one night, celebrating our young people, children and adults. It’s a real celebration.
“It really is about the community coming together and celebrating the achievements of people within the community and within our projects. On the back of that, our Alternative Provision service had their own awards.”
The Derbyshire FA Grassroots Awards were held at the SMH Group Stadium, with a Community Trust trio picking up awards. Keith said: “We were represented on stage by Michelle Slater, who won the Lioness Award, Nigel Smith, who got a long service award for his refereeing and Craig Dawson, who was named the Disability Coach of the Year.
“It was a really great night to celebrate the Trust’s work in grassroots football and a privilege to host the event at the stadium.”
Moving on to Mental Health Awareness Week, which was held from May 12 to 18, with a community theme. Keith said: “We hosted Mental Health Awareness Week earlier in the year – it was great to have Claire from the Mental Health Foundation come down.
“She spent time with staff, spent time with our participants. Really focusing on the work that we do in the mental health area, but also enabling us to have some additional training and strengthen what we do there.”
The Trust held a celebration event for 80 years of VE Day. Keith explained: “We had lots of children from Brockwell Junior School coming down, along with participants from Buddy Buddy and members of The Mercian Regiment. We had hundreds of people turn up for on a lovely sunny day for some games, songs, dancing and a tombola.”
The Trust installed heritage boards on the concourses in the Chesterfield College (East) Stand at the SMH Group Stadium to commemorate the club and the town’s history. Keith added: “It’s really enhanced what we’ve been able to do with our primary schools.
“We’ve had quite a few come down and have stadium tours, and we’re able to give them quizzes around the club, around the town, which has been a fantastic asset for us. We now run our stadium tours on matchdays as well, and it’s open to everybody, which is really important to us.
“As a part of that, we also unveiled a new plaque commemorating Ernie Moss in the Memorial Garden. Ernie is obviously a legend of the football club, and it was important that we had somewhere where fans can go and pay their respects.”
Speaking about further Leverton UK refurbishments, Keith said: “We’ve had a new wellbeing room developed. Marcus and his team at Leverton UK already refurbished our box and our toilets at the HUB upstairs and he’s now extended that into creating a wellbeing space for staff. They do some incredible work.”
