Palace for Life Foundation have joined Levelling the Playing Field as a local delivery partner and Angel O’Dwyer, who will be working on the project, has all the makings of a perfect role model for our participants.

Born and raised in Croydon, Angel was referred by her school to Palace for Life (the community arm of Premier League side Crystal Palace) in 2015. After joining their Premier League Works programme, she showed great focus and determination in classroom activities. She emerged as a very strong leader and was able to build strong bonds with other young people and staff alike.

Angel has been put forward for LtPF’s mentoring training and, along with Targeted Intervention Manager, Chase Hill, they will support children on Palace for Life’s designated Levelling the Playing Field sessions. Both sessions are part of the Premier League Kicks programme: a weekly girls-only football session for 11-16-year-olds and another football session for 8-12-year-olds.

“Angel understands her role is to inspire and be that positive role model for young people,” says Palace for Life Community Sports Manager, Roxanne Bennett. “All our mentors have that little bit about them, they’ve got stories to tell, and our young people will be inspired to listen and respect them.

“We try to ensure that our workforce is made up of people from the area who know what’s going on and have that connection with our young people. We’re very diverse and we have a lot of employees coming through now, like Angel, who are former participants. That’s great because they’re so much more than just a coaching badge to the young people.”

Palace for Life’s combination of sport and physical activity provision, mentoring, local role models and targeted interventions within their hugely diverse local community means Levelling the Playing Field was a natural fit for them to get involved with. Their work aligns with our common goals:

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

Roxanne is clearly delighted that Palace for Life Foundation have come on board. “This isn’t a six-month thing, it’s a long–term programme, so we’re looking forward to seeing real impact and tangible changes over that period of time,” she says.

“It’s not a programme just led by a coach with a badge on to get them better at football, it’s being led by people who can actually be there for them, listen and support. We’re on a journey with them for two or three years. That research will be fascinating to see and it’s great we’re contributing to a larger cause as well.”

That “larger cause” is contributing to an evidence base of best practice that will influence and advance policy, practice and investment to achieve our common goals.

LtPF aligns with Palace for Life programmes that support children who are in contact with the Criminal Justice System, with sport (particularly football) the initial engagement tool which kickstarts a journey towards a more positive future for each individual.

Breaking the Cycle and Youth Divert both aim to engage youngsters aged 10-18 who are at risk of criminal exploitation or criminal activity (e.g. knife crime, gangs, county lines, those who have been arrested for a first offence, have anger management issues, or are at risk of exclusion from mainstream education or PRUs).

“All of us within the Foundation work together to try to ensure each young person goes down the right path,” says Roxanne. “Our programmes cross over and provide different opportunities, so we see Levelling the Playing Field as a link between our other programmes, not just a Kicks session that operates independently.

“The research side of it will be important. In our monitoring and evaluation we always strive to get to know a bit more about our participants; their story and how they got here. We’re look forward to working with the Levelling the Playing Field research team and reaping some great benefits from being part of a big, important national project.”