As part of Anti-Social Behaviour Awareness Week, we are highlighting how the Premier League Kicks programme is teaming up with clubs and police forces to engage young people and help reduce anti-social behaviour.
The Police Partnerships Pilot is currently delivered by the charitable arms of eight professional football clubs and uses football as a tool to build community relationships and to support referred young people who are at risk of criminality and exploitation.
Brighton & Hove Albion Foundation are one of the clubs running the project and in under 12 months, they have seen significant results as crime associated with the initial cohort of 50 participants has fallen by 65 per cent.
Here, we speak with two people heavily involved in the pilot to find out why it's made an impact.
Katy Bourne, Police and Crime Commissioner for Sussex
"In my role, I am the voice of the public in policing. I have responsibility for the policing budget and I set the strategic direction for policing the county. The priorities I set reflects what Sussex residents tell me matters most to them in policing; anti-social behaviour features quite highly at the moment.
"The opportunity to work with the Premier League and Brighton & Hove Albion Foundation came about last year. What football teaches people, the benefits they get from it, are vast. To be able to target some of that funding in conjunction with the Premier League was just too good an opportunity to turn down.
"What I particularly love about it is the fact that it enables local police to participate. I recently went to the session in Crawley and I saw a young officer, in his football kit, playing football and breaking down barriers. The young people really identify with him. It was quite something.
"The officer told me that when he's out and about patrolling the town, he often sees the young people and they will come up to him and chat. Had they not had that experience of Premier League Kicks, they would probably have run a mile, particularly if their only interaction with the police up until that point had been negative.
"It helps them see the police as not just a uniform, but as human beings. He's got their trust and young people will confide in him in a way that they wouldn't have done had they not known him. That's a huge thing to happen.
"I also spoke with one of the parents and she was so proud with the change in her son. He was being bullied, he'd withdrawn into himself and where they live, it's quite difficult. He was starting to get into trouble because the only people that would befriend him were the wrong sort.
"Now, her son has friends, he is interacting. He sees it as being trained by the Premier League which gives him loads of kudos. He's not being picked on at school anymore because it's given him a lot more confidence.
"She was really worried about him but now she says, 'I can sleep at night'. What an amazing impact that is.
"The success of the pilot was far beyond my initial expectations. To have that reduction in the amount of crime is phenomenal. I'm very excited and really delighted, which is why I doubled my funding for this year.
"Being in a position to be able to put funding towards a programme which is clearly changing young people's lives for the better is a great feeling and it's why I went into this job in the first place.
"It reinforces everything I firmly believe, that sport, in whatever guise, is really important for young people. It's great for their relationships, anger management, physical and mental well-being. It teaches them self-control and self-discipline and helps them communicate.
"If you can make a difference to a young person, you can make a difference to their future and their children. The cycle continues. I feel very privileged to be able to help programmes like this happen."
Simon Yates, Hastings & Rother District Commander, Sussex Police
"When we started the project, I was the force lead for serious violence. We had already worked with Brighton & Hove Albion Foundation on a six-week mini trial in Eastbourne and it almost eradicated anti-social behaviour in a particular hotspot.
"We then developed that into a wider piece around Crawley which was also an anti-social behaviour hotspot. We started to identify the people that were coming to notice and referred them to Brighton, who approached the young people to explain to them what they would get out of it.
"We went in wearing Brighton kits, played football with them, did different games and had a bit of a chat. The young people started engaging with each other and making new friendships which was brilliant.
"It's grown and grown and the impact has been just phenomenal. Of all the interventions that we do, this has topped the charts.
"After three months we got the young people to write down what the best thing was about going to the sessions and it was all about making new friends, talking to new people, not being on the streets. It was all those life skills that they'd been taught on the programme. You can't put a number on that. That's really positive.
"The biggest issue we face in the areas we work in is deprivation because then it's a lack of access to activities after school. The prime time for anti-social behaviour is 3pm-7pm. A lot of these young people are also a target for exploitation because of factors like not going to school or having adverse childhood experiences.
"The police are seen as the authority. We put boundaries on people. We tell them what to do, whether they like it or not. It's difficult turning up in a uniform because the barrier goes up instantly. It's why we don't do it.
"Working with Brighton really opens up those doors. It breaks down barriers. We can then slowly gain trust and confidence. We're going in as youth engagement officers, not police officers.
"The opportunities young people have in life will be different because of the interaction they've had with us. They come to the sessions because we give them a sense of purpose, we listen to them, they're being educated through that intervention as opposed to being told what to do. It's an environment where they feel safe and trusted.
"If I was to have an issue within that estate or with something close to the people that attended that session, my first port of call now would be to go to the Brighton coaches to ask them to support us and deliver some messaging.
"It's a consistent programme as well. They know it will be taking place at a regular time. Without that you don't gain the trust and you don't create the lasting difference.
"I'm so passionate and proud about this project. It's absolutely fantastic.
"Football is about teamwork and building relationships and that is sometimes lacking in those communities, this opens doors that we wouldn't have had.
"To any other police force thinking of doing this, I would say embrace it, be brave and stick with it. Get the right people involved, if they love it they will buy into it and you'll see the difference."
The Police Partnerships Pilot is part of the Premier League Kicks programme.
Funded by the Premier League through the Premier League Charitable Fund, Premier League Kicks 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.
