New chair appointed to Your Trust charity

David Gelsthorpe, new chair of the board of trustees for Your Trust

Rochdale-based culture and leisure charity, Your Trust, has elected a new chair of the board of trustees, who will lead in delivering their recently published five-year strategic plan. David Gelsthorpe will replace Roger Platt, who has come to the end of his two, four-year terms as chair.

Many of the borough's leisure and cultural facilities are operated by the charity (formerly called Link4Life), including Touchstones Rochdale, Hollingworth Lake Adventure & Water Activity Centre, Heywood Sports Village, Littleborough Sports Centre, Rochdale Leisure Centre, Heywood Civic Centre and Middleton Arena.

David Gelsthorpe, Your Trust’s newly appointed chair, has been on the board as a trustee since 2020, and brings a wealth of experience to the role with his background as curator at Manchester Museum, as well as being a trustee at the Natural Science Collections Association. He first engaged with the trust when working as a partner on the Dippy on Tour exhibition and programme.

David said: “I am delighted to be the new chair of the board of trustees for Your Trust. We’ve got exciting plans ahead and I intend to use my role to support the delivery of these and deliver the best possible future for the people of Rochdale borough.”
 

Read more: Rochdale charity Link4Life becomes 'Your Trust'Published: 12 June 2021

Your Trust has recently published its new five-year strategic plan, which outlines the charity’s plans to further enhance the lives of their local community.

“We are here to support people to be healthier, happier, and more culturally rich. People are at the heart of what we do,” said David.

“We are passionate about this and want to build on what we have achieved and push ourselves to be better. To succeed, we know we need to adapt, so have been challenging ourselves to be more collaborative with partners and communities, more environmentally sustainable, more diverse, and have greater impact.”

The trust’s new strategic plan comes with an updated mission and vision statement, a focus for their work over the next five years: to inspire healthier, happier, and creative people by bringing together Your Culture, Your Health, and Your Community.

“With our new vision in mind, we’re keen to build on the work that we have done to make a real difference in the community,” said David.

“The decisions we’ve made have been led by listening to those who are impacted by it day-by-day, the community in which we’re a part of, so we can deliver more sustainable programmes for the borough.

“It has been a demanding few years, but now is a great time to make the most of combining community, culture, and health to be a leading health and wellbeing charity.”

“There are exciting opportunities for investment in people, what we do, and the facilities, and we intend to make the most of this.”