Gayle Elvidge appointed as Director of South Yorkshire

Yorkshire Sport Foundation (YSF) is pleased to announce the appointment of Gayle Elvidge as Director of South Yorkshire.

Gayle will start in the role on Monday 25 March, having spent the last four-and-a-half years as the YSF Development Manager for Wakefield.

In that time she has delivered several significant pieces of work for the district. In particular, she was responsible for bringing together and leading a consortium from a wide range of organisations  to submit a successful application for the five year Active Through Football investment, helping to increase physical activity opportunities in the south east of Wakefield.

Gayle leads on the Sport England investment into place-based whole systems working. This has developed over the last few years in focus and scale, with Gayle a pivotal figure in driving progress and securing further investment. This has included working with colleagues from the Council and across the district, to connect and collaborate on physical activity in new and engaging ways.

Prior to joining YSF, Gayle gained many years experience working in public, private and charity sector partnerships. She has delivered projects working with communities to improve wellbeing and safety, working collaboratively across geographical and organisational boundaries to achieve a shared aim.

She spent four years at Citizens Advice, working as part of a team responsible for training over 21,000 volunteers to give people the advice they need. This was preceded by nine years working for West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, taking on various roles with a common thread of community engagement, partnership working and relationship building. This included leading major projects, such as turning an old disused fire station into a community learning centre.

“I’m thrilled to be taking this next step on my journey with Yorkshire Sport Foundation,” said Gayle.

“It’s an exciting time to be supporting the existing great work in South Yorkshire alongside developing new opportunities. I’ve learnt so much from my time in Wakefield and have enjoyed collaborating with colleagues from right across the district on so many interesting and important pieces of work.”

“We’re delighted to appoint Gayle to the new role of Director of South Yorkshire,” said Nigel Harrison, Chief Executive at YSF.

“When Gayle joined us in 2019, we knew we were appointing someone with a track record of bringing people together around a common goal. Over the last five years, we have seen that for ourselves with the work she has been involved in in Wakefield.”