Millwall Community Trust (MCT) have been featured in the 2024 Discover Lewisham campaign.

It's the fourth time since 2022 that Lewisham Council have run this campaign, and this time round Lewisham Council are featuring local businesses as the face of Discover Lewisham - with all involved winners at the 2023 Mayor’s Business Awards, as voted by the local community.

It originally started out as a six-week campaign over the 2022 summer that positioned Lewisham as an events destination, using the London Borough of Culture programme as an anchor to attract local people to stay in the borough and spend locally, and visitors to come and discover what Lewisham has to offer.

Lewisham Council through the campaign are encouraging people to stay local and spend local because if Lewisham businesses thrive so does the community.

Millwall Community Trust won the 2023 Best Community Contribution at the Mayor’s Business Awards and through the campaign there are billboards and posters around the Community featuring all of the businesses.

You can see Lewisham Council's article below:

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Our game-changing sports community

Millwall Community Trust deliver programmes for around 12,000 residents each year. They are thrilled to be part of Lewisham Council’s Discover Lewisham this Summer campaign, encouraging people to enjoy all that Lewisham has to offer.

Millwall Community Trust (MCT), the charity arm of Millwall Football Club, have been delivering for Lewisham residents for 33 years and have proven time and time again to be a committed, innovative and community-focused organisation. The proud Chief Executive, Sean Daly said:

“You know, as a community trust, we're here to try and change people's lives and improve it.”

They were the deserving winners of the Best Community Contribution award at the 2023 Mayor of Lewisham Business Awards and are now one of five familiar faces fronting our Discover Lewisham campaign this summer.

The Trust are based next to the iconic ‘Den’ stadium and provide programmes for residents from the age of 4 years old, up to 89 years old. They have a mix of football-inspired activities such as toddler football to walking football as well as development programmes for aspiring footballers, and a mix of educational and operational programmes such as their media department to train up people for a career in the football industry.

The Trusts’ Chief Executive, Sean Daly shared that their programmes are grounded in what the community wants, and are developed after undertaking speaking to and listening to residents.

As well as football programmes, the Trust do a number of social initiatives, such as their food bank which helps feed around 150 families a week.

“What I love about the borough, is it's very diverse. It's a young borough. It's a growing borough. Just love the area and the community.”

The Trust work closely with Lewisham College, to help get young people into college at 16 to 18 years old. Together, they have set up a Post-16 Football Academy, providing sessional football coaching to aspiring young players, with a structured education programme.

“Every programme has got a success story in it. Whether the young person has gone over the line and played sport after never wanting to be in sport, older people who have joined our walking sport.... There are loads of journeys - they may be very small for some people, but it's a massive journey for those people.”

Millwall Community Trust also work alongside the police on minimising anti-social behaviour by going into Lewisham’s hotspot areas and providing positive activities such as football, coaching, dance, basketball, and or anything the young people ask for.

Find out more about Millwall Community Trust’s programmes and work by visiting their website: https://www.millwallcommunity.org.uk/

This hidden gem is one of the many proudly independent small businesses that Lewisham has to offer. Here's our guide to a great summer in Lewisham: https://lewisham.gov.uk/inmyarea/discover-lewisham