The Premier League Charitable Fund has 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.
Premier League Kicks has been part of Dylan Redhead's life since he was 12-years-old.
Thirteen years later, he is still with the programme and has a full-time role as a project officer with the Newcastle United Foundation to engage young people in positive activities and help them reach their potential.
This is Dylan's story.
"When I was younger, my friendship group just wanted to play football but there wasn't any social space for us to do so without paying for a pitch. It was getting to the stage where we were running out of places to go. That was when we thought, 'why don't we give Premier League Kicks a try?'
"I first heard about Premier League Kicks through word of mouth at school. I went along to that first session and it felt like I'd been there for a month. It was like home. I knew so many people, I didn't know why I was worried about going.
"I can't remember missing a session for about four or five years straight.
"As well as playing football, being at Premier League Kicks was about keeping away from the other things that were going on. Our thinking was that if we were with Newcastle United Foundation staff, we couldn't get into any bother.
"It was a safe football session and it helped us massively. There were at least 100 participants every week across five different pitches. It was phenomenal.
"When I left school, I was working in construction as a roofer but getting involved in coaching and youth work was something I really wanted to do.
"I started volunteering and then working at various youth organisations before I got a job with Newcastle United Foundation last year. I feel like it's completed the journey of what I actually want to do.
"My local area is classed as deprived. There's a lot of drugs, anti-social behaviour and knife crime. It was really hard to move away from those things when everyone was getting sucked into it.
"If Premier League Kicks wasn't around, I think the pathway for a lot of young people, especially after the effects of COVID, would be a lot more difficult.
"Without these opportunities for those participants to attend the programme, you would see an increase in violence and bad behaviour and people going down the wrong path.
"For me, it has pretty much created the perfect career path for what I want to do. If someone had asked me when I was 12 or 13, what I wanted to do with my life, there's no way I would have said coaching.
"The more I was seeing the benefits to the young people from the staff that were there at Premier League Kicks and what they were offering, the more I thought that this is what I want to do.
"Premier League Kicks has got a special place in my heart. It's crazy because I'm working with coaches that were there when I first started.
"Sarah Burn was a part-time sessional coach when I was attending and she's now co-ordinating the whole programme for Newcastle United. It goes to show that there's a lot of progression. I've been through it as well.
"If it wasn't for attending those sessions, I could still see myself sat on a roof somewhere, trying to do construction work, which I just didn't want to do.
"Attending as a 12-year-old completely changed my life. Any opportunity that gets given with Premier League Kicks, you've got to take it.
"It's a very special programme. It's so much more than simply a game of football. It might take a little while for participants to see that but they'll definitely realise that eventually."
Premier League Kicks, funded by the Premier League through the Premier League Charitable Fund, uses the power of football and sport to inspire young people to reach their potential, in some of the most high-need areas in England and Wales.
More than half a million people have benefited to date.
