Our aim is to further develop strong and lasting relationships with the wider community, which will help encourage the community to feel more of an integral part of the club.

Club chairman, Nick Dargan said “Whilst we have been planning the launch for some time, we wanted to have completed substantial improvements to the club’s facilities and infrastructure, and to recruit the right person to lead the project before going live.

“We are delighted to have done both with major improvements at Grange Park now complete and the appointment of Danny Gordon as our new Community Officer. There will be a number of new initiatives as well as the expansion of others.

“We will widen our partnerships with local schools, the Erewash School Sports Partnership, the local council and a wide variety of other community groups who are already offering excellent support throughout the region. We will also be delivering a comprehensive holiday programme that provides much needed support to parents and carers during the school holidays.”

With the allocation of Danny, we have appointed a highly enthusiastic individual who has previously worked in the sector with Nottingham Forest Community Trust.

For the last 12 months, Danny has worked with our academy delivering both the formal academic and football programmes - he is ideally qualified to lead the trust’s work, as well as providing work experience for our BTEC and higher education students in the most advantageous way.

Newly appointed community officer, Gordon, added: “I am hugely excited by the new role and the wide scope the club has given me. One of our first projects will be to support the @Derbyshire HAF programme providing a free winter holiday activity and food programme in early January 2023 with further details being announced next week.”

The club has also submitted a further planning application for the build of a dedicated community suite within the Grange Park stadium that will be used to facilitate the wider holiday and activities programme as well as being available for use by other social and community groups during week-days with those engaged in the various programmes being invited to join the club on match-days.