Millwall Community Trust are the latest addition to our Local Delivery Partners in London. They have been using sport to achieve positive social impact in their local community for over 35 years.

The charitable arm of the famous Championship football club serves the local boroughs of Southwark and Lewisham, which have very ethnically diverse populations but are blighted by high levels of crime and youth violence.

Millwall already have several initiatives in place to tackle these issues and joining Levelling the Playing Field will strengthen their support for children in the local area. Their allocated LtPF session is part of the Premier League Kicks programme, takes place on Thursday evening at the local Silwood Estate and is free for 11-16-year-olds to attend.

“We work with local partners and the community to engage young people by providing free weekly football sessions in safe spaces. We believe all young people deserve an equal chance and opportunity so It’s important to invest time in them,” says Richard White, Millwall Community Trust’s Community Development Manager.

“This project is a great example of us working with partners to tackle social issues and directly respond to local needs. We’re investing our time with young people and developing trust to help create pathways into volunteering, education and employment.”

Millwall Community Trust’s embeddedness in their local community, the strong relationships they have formed through sport with young people and their targeted programmes focused on reducing crime makes them an ideal LtPF local delivery partner as their work aligns with our common goals:

  • Increase the number of ethnically diverse children taking part in sport and physical activity
  • Prevent and divert ethnically diverse children from being involved with the Criminal Justice System

As well as Premier League Kicks, Millwall run several other crime prevention initiatives, including Divert, a custody intervention programme for 18-25-year-olds. A coach from Millwall engages young people at the point of arrest in the custody suite of Lewisham Police Station, assesses their motivation to make positive change and starts an intervention plan to prevent them from re-offending.

A related programme, which began last September, is called Premier League Kicks Targeted, for 14-17-year-olds who have been arrested. Millwall work with a small cohort of the most prolific offenders for a year, working on engagement and rehabilitation.

Additionally, Millwall are part of a local partnership called Breaking Barriers. Led by the Active Communities Network, funded by the Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) and supported by Lewisham and Southwark councils. This partnership allows local agencies to effectively pool together resources and expertise to investigate root causes of, and further reduce, youth violence. Fight 4 Change, another LtPF Local Delivery Partner, are also involved.

“Within our consortium there’s something that all parties specialise in to help achieve positive outcomes through the lived experiences of the staff members – in our case that’s using the appeal of football and the Millwall badge to attract young people to take part in regular football coaching, mentoring, education and employability opportunities,” says Richard. “We work with local partners to identify certain hotspots within the boroughs, aiming in bringing about reduction in crime and youth violence”.

Richard has worked at Millwall for 21 years and is proud that a high proportion of the delivery staff are ex-participants, from the local community who have progressed into volunteering which then led to paid coaching roles. This includes Gary Otim, who is now the programme manager of the Millwall Premier League Kicks project, which LtPF is a part of.

Richard says: “That process comes from us having a tailored approach for achievable outcomes and creating those pathways for young people. Whilst we want to support young people that dream of being a footballer, you also need to be realistic about how difficult this is to achieve. So, it is equally important to upskill yourself. Some of the training we provide offers routes into employment in the sports industry. We have real-life examples of former participants that are either a professional footballer or are now employed delivering on the programme.

“Our staff are trusted by young people and they’re part of this community. They live and breathe the area. They are probably in a better position to support a young person because they are from the same area, they share their frustrations and are non-judgmental. More than anything else our staff are there to listen to the young people. As well as being football coaches they are basically youth workers as well.”

Millwall’s support of young people is about to be strengthened through Levelling the Playing Field’s mentoring training. Mentoring and Support Officer, Hassan Ibrahim (another former participant), has already started the course.

“Hassan has already worked on various mentoring and support projects we’ve run and the LTPF’s mentoring training will only further enhance his development as a mentor,” comments Richard. “Whilst using football as an engagement tool is vital we are also thinking about employment pathways, analysing what they do on a day-to-day basis and coming up with individual action plans.”

Millwall’s approach with children and young people very much matches the Youth Justice Board’s ‘child-first’ philosophy, which runs through everything Levelling the Playing Field also do.

“We must be non-judgemental and be approachable as an organisation to better understand our young people.” Richard states. “Sometimes it comes down to bad choices, lack of opportunities or not having a positive role models in their life. Regardless, we are there to support them through their journey.”