Millwall Football Club and Millwall Community Trust (MCT) have been featured in the latest London Chamber of Commerce brochure.
You can read the full version below:
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From reducing youth crime to feeding hungry kids
Luke Wilson, Chief Commercial Officer of Millwall Football Club, and Sean Daly, CEO of Millwall Community Trust, talk to Sarah Dale about using the power of football to engage young people away from a life of crime and how the business community’s support means they can reach even more people.
The power of football to unite communities is a local success story in Bermondsey, the home of Millwall Football Club.
Founded in 1885, the Club’s devoted fans follow every game with passion and pride. The Club’s charity arm, Millwall Community Trust, was established 33 years ago and has been a force for good in Lewisham, Southwark and Kent.
The “power of the Club badge” means that the award-winning charitable trust can reach communities other authorities such as social workers and the police can struggle to engage with.
Luke Wilson, Chief Commercial Officer of Millwall FC, says: “Sean and his team work in some of the most challenging estates in the country. When his coaches walk into those estates the conversation is different.
“As a Club, we have always had a fantastic relationship with our fans locally. Football is so important; it gives people an outlet, a release.”
Sean said: "We have seen a significant increase in the number of people who use the food banks we operate. The Club’s fans deliver food donations on match days. Increasingly we are seeing nurses and other key workers using this service and the greater the sponsorship we can secure the more vulnerable people and families we can help.”
The Trust carries out a variety of programmes to support people living in Lewisham and Southwark and have more recently widened their area to include Kent too.
All the programmes have been created following discussions with the local community and local authorities to ascertain what the primary needs are.
The Trust works with the police and young people to offer support and a “safe haven” where they can play football and disengage from crime.
Lewisham is the third most dangerous borough in London. The overall crime rate in Lewisham in 2023 was 136 crimes per 1,000 people.
This compares poorly to London's overall crime rate, coming in 30% higher than the London rate of 105 per 1,000 daytime population. For England, Wales, and Northern Ireland as a whole, Lewisham is among the top 10 most dangerous cities, and the 402nd most dangerous location out of all towns, cities, and villages.
Southwark is the fourth worst borough for knife crime in London. Between November 2020 and December 2023, the borough saw 2,015 knife-related offences.
The KICKS weekly football practices run in crime hotspots at times when police have identified as crime spikes in a conscious effort to reduce crime in the boroughs. Last year, 1,602 young people engaged with the sessions.
Sean Daly, CEO of Millwall Community Trust, says that aside from himself and one other person, the 20 full-time staff members and around 30 volunteers are from the local boroughs they serve.
“It’s important to be from the local area so our volunteers can engage with people,” he adds.
The Trust works with Lewisham Council, Southwark Council and Sevenoaks District Council in Kent.
The Trust’s programmes include a walking football/sports programme for seniors; two LGBTQ+ football teams; children’s SEND (special educational needs and disabilities) sessions in schools; Pan Disability football and multi-sports sessions for children aged eight to 12 and 13 to 16; and a football league for people suffering with mental health issues run by Slam with the Trust providing the kits and coaches. The Trust has also recently introduced a new programme for veterans to ensure they receive the support they need to adjust from military life to civilian life.
Last year, the Trust provided 8,000 free sports holiday camps and hot meals during the school holidays to children and young people – with many extra meals provided to the children’s families to take home with them.
“We also work in two local prisons –Belmarsh and Swaleside on the Isle of Sheppey – with inmates due to leave within the next two years,” says Sean.
“Most of the prisoners are from our local area and we try to rehabilitate them into the local community and provide work experience such as shadowing some of our coaches.
“In 2023, we delivered 280 hours of support and engaged with 75 inmates.
“We take them to football sessions on a night to speak to the young people to talk about their experiences and going to prison. We want to break that cycle of crime.”
They also work with DWP to get unemployed people into work and 1,000 people turned up at the last jobs fair, leading to 80 people securing a job.
“The key thing is working with the local authorities to identify issues and then provide a programme to combat that issue,” adds Sean.
They have introduced the Divert programme with funding from Bounce Back for a custody officer to be based at Lewisham Police Station and one soon to be added to Southwark Police Station too.
“Any young person aged 16-24 that comes in that’s been arrested for carrying a knife, affray or drugs offences won’t go to prison,” explains Sean.
“They will be released until their court date. They’re told they may still go to prison at court. The Millwall Divert Officer will work with them in that time (between arrest and court date) to get them onto an apprenticeship, into employment or into education, something positive. If that young person then goes to court working and paying taxes or in full-time college, then they are looked on more favourably.
“We have stopped 40 young people from receiving a custodial sentence in the last 4 years. It costs £35,000 a year to fund a prisoner so that money has been saved too.”
The Trust wants to expand its reach and its work in the community but can only do so with the support of the Club and sponsorship from individuals and businesses.
“We want to expand our reach and bring on bigger brands internationally, but it’s also really important to us to retain that local link,” says Luke.
“Our fans and local businesses now have a fantastic opportunity to work on CSR projects with us while these Commercial partnerships will bring more revenue to support what we do.
“We have got fantastic opportunities for local businesses to get involved with our new business and community network. As part of this - not only will they get tickets to host clients, staff or customers; there’s brand awareness via social media posts and in-stadia promotion; alongside readymade community programmes to get involved in where as a business you can give back to and support the local community.
The Club has also launched Business Networking events as part of the packages for local businesses and organisations to connect and network with each other. There will be four events every season with different themes and guest speakers.
“We have a range of packages available on our website now soon starting from as little as £500 with a proportion of income from every package dedicated to supporting the Community Trust’s work.”
Luke says joining South East London Chamber of Commerce was down to realising they did so much great work in the community but not many people knew about it.
“We do so much in our community, but we don’t really shout about it and we want to show people that we’re here and what we do,” he says.
“Supporting Millwall means supporting the community,” adds Luke. “Whether their interest is football-related or because as a business they want to show how they care about their local community, they can now join the business and community network knowing that they’re making a difference to local people’s lives. In that way - the Club can help turbo-charge what the Trust is doing.”
www.millwallfc.co.uk/commercial/partnerships
The Trust’s awards include Best Community Contribution 2023 by the Mayor of Lewisham, the London Youth Quality Awards, the IESE Certificate of Excellence 2023 and Best Charity 2023/24 at the Southwark Business Awards.
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To find out more, visit: https://www.selondonchamber.org/">https://www.selondonchamber.org/
