Daksh Gupta and Paolo Okoye joined participants from Crawley Town’s Premier League Kicks session Tuesday evening at Oriel High School to celebrate the commitment from the Premier League to fund the community programme for another three years. This investment will enable more than 175,000 young people to access Premier League Kicks sessions across England and Wales by 2022.
Premier League Kicks gives young people access to free football sessions, sports sessions and workshops, providing them with opportunities, support and pathways to achieve their full potential. It sees club community staff working closely with young people and authorities in their local area, including police and Crawley Borough Council, Mid-Sussex District Council, Clarion Housing to create stronger, safer and more inclusive communities.
Aimed at eight-to-18-year-olds, Kicks engages young people in positive activities through their passion for football, whilst also addressing topics covering everything from equality and inclusion to youth violence and knife crime.
Premier League support will see the programme grow so that 90 Premier League, EFL and National League clubs are able to deliver sport and education sessions in hundreds of local communities where projects are needed most. With a focus on integration, equality and inclusion, thousands more girls will be engaged, and clubs will deliver ever more inclusive sessions.
Crawley Town First Team players saw how young people in Crawley have been positively impacted by the programme and joined in with the Crawley Town Community Foundation’s weekly football session.
Crawley Town Community Foundation has been running Premier League Kicks sessions for the past 3 years and has encouraged more than 1400 participants to take part in positive activity.
HEAD OF COMMUNITY QUOTE – “Our Premier League Kicks programme has provided young people with opportunities within Crawley and the surrounding areas that have impacted not just on themselves, but on the local communities where we have delivered the programme.
To be awarded a further 3 years funding, is testament to the impact the Foundation has within the local area, along with the hard work of the delivery staff, who work with the participants to ensure the programme is a success. We look forward to building on our success and continuing to support the young people attending the Premier League Kicks sessions within their local community.”
Premier League Executive Director Bill Bush said: “The Premier League Kicks programme has been running successfully through our clubs and many across the EFL for thirteen years. To show our commitment to young people and communities, we are investing further to ensure its continuation for another three years, until 2022.
“Kicks is our flagship community programme and we are pleased that with the support of clubs and partners across the country, not least the police, we can continue to positively impact young people, providing them with opportunities and pathways that they may not have been able to access. Twenty per cent of current Premier League Kicks staff are former participants or volunteers, which goes to show how a long-term commitment can provide support and pathways for young people to better themselves, in turn allowing them to be a positive influence to others growing up in their community.
To find out more about Premier League Kicks or to find a local session, head to: https://www.ctcommunityfoundation.com/
More information on the national PL Kicks programme and its objectives can be found at: https://www.premierleague.com/communities/programmes/community-programmes/pl-kicks
