Barnsley Football Club are backing this weekend’s EFL Play Safe campaign, raising awareness of the vital importance of safeguarding in our national game.
The Play Safe campaign is officially supported by the NSPCC as well as the Premier League, EFL, Barclays Women’s Super League and Barclays Women’s Championship. It is also being backed by every other level of the game across England. Across the game this weekend, managers will wear pin badges and club captains will wear Play Safe armbands to raise awareness for the campaign.
Jack Hall is a lifelong Barnsley fan and works with the charitable arm of the Club, Reds in the Community.
“I’ve been working with Reds in the Community since 2020,” began Jack. “I studied with them, and now I’m doing a media internship there.”
It was whilst partaking in the educational setting at Reds in the Community that it became apparent Jack required the help of the Safeguarding team in place there.
“It was just after the first academic year, so May 2021, when the issues started,” he explained. “I came back in August for an induction and that is when I told someone called Kelly at the Club.”
Kelly Robinson-Walton is Head of Safeguarding at the Community and, as Jack mentioned, was the first port of call in helping with the issues he was facing.
“Straight away, she helped,” he recalled. “It only took a couple of months for the issues to be resolved, all thanks to the Club’s resources.
“With a lot of people that work in the mental health area, they can be quite robotic and stick to a formula, whereas with Kelly, she really went above and beyond for me to make sure that I was OK.
“If it wasn’t for her, then I probably wouldn’t be here. I’m indebted to her for the rest of my life.”
Highlighting the importance of safeguarding in football, Jack went onto explain the impact of the intervention Kelly and members of staff at the Community had during his time.
“Since that time, I’ve thought back to how many good days I’ve had since I tried to bring harm to myself. I’d have missed out on a lot of good days and a lot of good days that are yet to come.”
Further light will be shone on the campaign at our home game with Exeter City next weekend, with the fixture aimed to support the Play Safe cause.
