A weekly mental health programme that we have previously supported has been relaunched by Reds in the Community and CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) Barnsley.

Hosted at Barnsley Football Club’s Oakwell Stadium, Safety Nets is run every Thursday and attendees participate in an hour of physical activity and then 30 minutes of wellbeing conversation around the mental health impact of sleep, exercise, diet and lifestyle.

We previously donated £2,000 to the initiative which was disrupted by the pandemic. This donation was enough to fund three cohorts of the eight-week long scheme.

A participant of the Safety Nets programme said: “I enjoy coming to this session as I rarely get out of the house and socialise with other people of my own age, I have made some friends and it is a great feeling, I just wish we could come more than once a week.”

Reds in the Community are a registered charity delivering community and charitable activities on behalf of Barnsley Football Club. They use the power of football and Barnsley Football Club to engage and improve the lives of local people.

Lynn Goodman, Inclusion Officer at Reds in the Community said: “The participants when attending are very quiet, rarely give much away and have low confidence in the setting but after two to three sessions in, the impact it has on the participants is massive and only seeing the participants you can understand this.

They socialise from the beginning of each session and engage in all activities with great confidence and smiles on their faces which therefore tells me we must be doing something right and can only continue to deliver these sessions as the participants need this.”