The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children celebrates its 125-year anniversary today (14th May); over a century of work dedicated to improving the lives of children across the country.

Closer to home, Doncaster's NSPCC centre flung open it's doors to the public on Thursday 14th March, to allow people in all walks of life the opportunity to see the incredible facilities that are available for children in the borough who need help, a safe place to go or just somebody to talk to.

A superb turnout attended the NSPCC open day; with attendees given a glimpse of the hard, yet passionate work that volunteers working with abused children carry out on a day-to-day basis, revealing that it is not just the children that need help - but also parents and, in some cases, foster parents. Whether it be better understanding of individual cases or scenarios in general, the workers at Doncaster's NSPCC centre deliver.

NSPCC Doncaster child services manager Tom Clift explains the nature of the NSPCC

Presentations were delivered from the team who work at the centre, explaining the incredible development that has taken place in Doncaster with the NSPCC since a centre was established in 1996. A huge emphasis was made on the importance of the development in learning and dealing with situations - and the crucial contribution that is made towards this by people donating to the national children's charity.

Doncaster Rovers Football Club has recently formed a major partnership with the NSPCC; publicized through Doncaster Rovers wearing green and white hooped shirts for the final home game of the 2008-09 season at Keepmoat Stadium against Crystal Palace. The day was dubbed Green Day; with supporters and staff also showing their support for the cause - by wearing green and by holding up green cards as the players entered the stadium, creating four banks of green.

Doncaster's NSPCC team explain in-depth the work and the development of the centre since 1996

Doncaster Rovers Chief Executive Dave Morris attended the open day and was presented with a certificate and letter of thanks from the NSPCC to the football club, after it was revealed that a huge sum of money had been raised in bucket collections on the day of the Crystal Palace game. That figure is set to rise dramatically, however, with Doncaster Rovers Football Club auctioning off all of the players' green and white hooped shirts over the course of the next couple of months. Huge sums of money have already been raised through the current shirts on auction; with James Hayter's shirt alone fetching a whopping £1,030! All of the money raised is going directly back to the NSPCC to ensure that the hard, incredible work that is being carried out in Doncaster and, more specifically, in the brilliant facility in Doncaster continues.

One of the many rooms in the NSPCC facilty, where children can escape and feel safe

People in attendance were then given a guided tour of the facility, which includes a variety of different rooms with different materials to help the children feel relaxed and, most importantly, safe and comfortable.

"85% of the NSPCC's budget comes from income that is raised by donation from people or from organizations that they may work with. It is no exaggeration at all to say that, without that work or that high level of support, we wouldn't be here," explained Doncaster's NSPCC child services manager Tom Clift.

"Today marks the 125th year of the NSPCC's existence and we have had an important role throughout that time. I think that in this current climate, having that voice and listening to children is incredibly important. We have teams that specialize in family support work, we have teams that specialize in prevention and we have drop-in centres, where young people know they will have somebody there who will listen to them and that what is said will remain confidential. The NSPCC represents somebody who is independent of a situation and somebody whose emphasis will always remain keeping the child safe."