Levelling the Playing Field sessions run by our specialist partners Millwall in the Community take place at an enclosed outdoor ball cage on the Silwood estate in south east London.

The sessions are part of the Premier League Kicks programme and bring together local 14-16-year-olds every Wednesday to play football, stay active and form friendships with children from different backgrounds.

Gary Otim, who manages the programme, embodies the positive impact it has on children in the ethnically diverse neighbourhood. He came through the Premier League Kicks programme, starting as a participant aged 11. He then began volunteering, became a qualified coach, and was then appointed Programme Manager.

“That’s actually the background of a lot of our staff,” he says “When people take that route, they have in-depth knowledge of what’s going on in the community. If it was someone from outside the borough or the community, they wouldn’t share that vested interest or understand how we deliver.”

To the best of Gary’s knowledge, the majority of participants in their Levelling the Playing Field sessions aren’t involved in criminal activity, but they are vulnerable to the activity that does go on in what is an area of high crime and deprivation.

“Our priority is engaging young people in physical activity, keeping them healthy and active and building within them a positive relationship with sport,” explains Gary.

“A lot of young people fall out of love with sport because they believe they’re not good at it or they don’t have the opportunity to engage with it as much as they’d like. A lot of young people we work with are from Afro-Caribbean backgrounds and, being from that community myself, I know there is expectation and pressure to focus on your education and that leisure is considered less important.

“We know it is important, and not just to go and kick a ball around each week, but for lots of other reasons too.”

Staff have an avuncular relationship with participants. Gary calls it ‘soft youth work’. He says: “We ask them, ’How’s school?’ ‘How’s things at home?’ ‘What’s going on in the area?’ and it opens up good dialogue where they can share any concerns.”

Another major impact of the sessions is fostering social cohesion. Gary explains: “For me, a huge part of what we do is bringing people together. In our programmes over the years, sport has always been a great way of developing friendships between young people from all different backgrounds and cultures. It gives them understanding and new perspectives on life.”

Using sport to engage children, increase their wellbeing and welfare and make communities safer means Millwall Community Trust align perfectly with Levelling the Playing Field’s common goals:

- Increase the number of ethnically diverse children taking part in sport and physical activity

- Prevent and divert ethnically diverse children from becoming involved in the Criminal Justice System

Millwall Community Trust run several programmes which specifically target crime prevention and rehabilitation including Divert, a national custody intervention programme for 18-25-year-olds and Premier League Kicks Targeted for 14-17-year-olds who are persistent offenders. Additionally, the Trust is part of a partnership called Breaking Barriers which unites local agencies and expertise to investigate root causes of, and further reduce, youth violence (another LtPF specialist partner, Fight 4 Change, are also involved).

“Sport is a great way of building resilience and character,” says Gary. “As cliched as it sounds, some of the kids at these sessions were initially quiet and reserved, but they’re now started to come out of their shells. It might not be an immediate impact, but further down the line you can see the difference in them.

“I grew up in this area and our staff have knowledge of what’s going on in the estate. We’ve built up a network of partners who do similar work and we do our absolute best to support young people however we can.”