Last week the Premier League Charitable Fund launched the Premier League Kicks Alumni survey, which aims to understand the impact that the Premier League's longest-running community programme has on participants.
As part of this campaign, we are telling the story of the programme through the voices of those who have taken part.
To complete the Alumni survey, click here.
Like so many in his position, Premier League Kicks co-ordinator Max Scott is not simply a coach on the pitch.
He is a role model, a mentor, and an inspirational example of how Premier League Kicks can help change the course of someone's life.
"I couldn't tell you where I would be without Premier League Kicks," he says. "I wasn't making the right decisions and I didn't have a purpose.
"Premier League Kicks has given me that career, that goal, that motivation, that drive to make something out of my life and help the people around me.
"I dedicate a lot of my time to Premier League Kicks because I'm grateful of what it has done for me. For me, it means life."
It was in secondary school that Max came to a crossroads.
He was involved in anti-social behaviour and by Year 9 he had been permanently excluded from school.
At the same time he was being excluded, a family tragedy was unfolding.
"My mum died in the same week I was excluded," he says. "It put everything in perspective.
"We had a meeting at a new school and I saw my dad cry for the first time. At that point I knew that I was letting him down, I was going down a path that wasn't right."
As Max was reeling from his mum's passing, a friend introduced him to Premier League Kicks sessions run by Reading FC Community Trust.
"I got involved, I played some football and then over time, I started building relationships with the other young people and coaches. I heard their stories and I shared mine with them," he says.
"It's a really friendly, safe, open, fun and engaging environment and that inspired me to try to make better choices.
"If there's something going on at school or at home and I don't want to talk to a teacher or my dad about it, I can talk to the coaches and get their opinion.
"Those positive relationships with the coaches; being able to talk and trust them, being able to have those conversations and having complete faith in them, that's what kept me coming back.
"It gave me something to do, something to focus on and it kept me on the right track at a difficult moment in time."
With support and guidance from Premier League Kicks coaches, as well as having plenty of resilience of his own, Max completed school and got his GCSEs.
He earned further qualifications through the Reading FC Community Trust College Programme and this has led to Max pursuing a career in coaching.
In the space of three years, Max has progressed from volunteer to full-time Premier League Kicks coach and then programme co-ordinator.
"Sharing my experiences with the young people I work with, to try to inspire them to do something similar to what I've done, is what I am here for," he says. "As a participant you know what it's like to see a good coach and when you are in that position you can try to be that person.
"The young people on our team are on a journey. They started attending sessions, getting cool opportunities and now they're at the point where they might go off to college and start to become adults.
"I hope that some of them continue on the trajectory that I did and become staff members. It would be awesome to be working alongside some of them in a few more years and see where their journey takes them. It's so rewarding."
Now 21-years-old, Max is a different person to the one that had so many hurdles to overcome as a teenager.
And that change was not lost on Max this summer when he took his Reading team to St. George's Park for the Premier League Kicks Cup.
"You do have those moments when you pinch yourself," he says. "When the team walked out for the final I felt a bit emotional. These boys have come a long way.
"I see the good stuff I'm doing now and it fills me with pride and then it motivates me to do more. What can I do next? How can I make more impact? How can I help more people? How can I make myself better?
"We have a small family, we don't come from much, but I can help them and give back to my nephews and nieces and make sure that they don't make the silly decisions that I did.
"When I do cool stuff like coming to St. George's Park, I think my mum wouldn't have minded me getting kicked out of school with my life working out like it has."
