Gareth Cooke

Experience

• 

  Barnsley FC Community Trust

  Aug 2012 - Aug 2023

  Within this role I helped shape, design and deliver our Active Through Football programme for Barnsley, the role was funded as a national project initially across 25 areas of England by the National Lottery, Sport England and the Football Foundation. We rebranded our project as the ‘Game Changer’ with the project being redesigned and rebranded to sit amongst partners; these initially being Reds in the Community, Barnsley Council Sport and Active Recreation Team, Active in Barnsley, Central Area Team, Barnsley CVS, Sheffield FA and Coalfields Regeneration Trust. From the inception of the programme to present day, the partners list and invested individuals has grown exponentially. We deliver week on week with the support of our local Community Champions over 20 different activities for the Worsbrough and Kendray area of Barnsley. These ranging from chair based exercise, to coffee and conversation sessions, youth clubs and full blown 11 a side football. With our youngest participant being 3 years old and the eldest being 102! The programme is very much targeted at specific areas of the Barnsley borough. I manage the day to day running of the project, the coordination and delivery, our four Community Champions, meet with stakeholders and key partners, also I manage the budget, finances, reporting procedures and spreading the trust of the programme, through valuable community engagement. I also manage the day to day social media of the project, creating content, case studies and engaging audiences through this platform. Whilst developing local people and providing opportunities to individuals from our local area. Show less

  • Active Through Football Coordinator

    Jan 2022 - Aug 2023

  • Premier League Primary Stars Officer

    Jan 2020 - Jan 2022

  • Senior Community Coach

    Oct 2017 - Jan 2020

  • Casual Sports Coach

    Aug 2012 - Oct 2017
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  G.T.C Fitness

  Aug 2014 - Dec 2020

  Personal Trainer

  I was operating as a self-employed personal training working as a mobile personal trainer in and around the Barnsley area, working with people in their own homes and parks, and their own gym settings. I enabled clients to make the correct lifestyle changes and adaptations, so they can lead a healthy active lifestyle. I worked with a select few individuals who I met from various walks of life, with a focus on helping them meet their own goals.

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  BPL (Barnsley Premier Leisure)

  Mar 2015 - May 2017

  Fitness Instructor
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  ‘therunningmaninblue’

  Sept 2016 - now

  Blogger & Social Media

  As a way of documenting my running journey, challenges and obstacles I have maintained a online blog on www.therunningmaninblue.co.uk I initially used it as a platform to log and document my racing and training endeavours, maintaining it as a online diary. When travelling around for races around Yorkshire and the wider United Kingdom people would recognise me because they’ve ‘read my blog.’ This has since moved into becoming a YouTube channel under the name ‘therunningmaninblue’ where I again document my journeys, travels and training. Show less

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  Barnsley Athletic Club

  Nov 2021 - now

  Social Media and Website Manager

  I manage the content and design of the website for my running club on a voluntary basis, maintaining the website through the Wordpress platform. I also manage, engage and create the content that goes out on our social media platforms of Facebook and Instagram.

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  Barnsley Council

  Aug 2023 - now

  Sport & Physical Activity Officer