The Premier League has announced a continuation of a pilot project that aims to build stronger connections between professional football clubs and their local police forces.
Between 2023 and 2026, the Premier League is investing more than £500,000 into the Police Partnerships Pilot to support 26 club charities to work with their local police forces and build community relationships.
This investment is match funded by police forces resulting in more than £1million of investment into local communities.
The Police Partnership Pilot is open to the charitable arms of professional football clubs in the Premier League, English Football League and National League.
Through the pilot, clubs across England and Wales will work with their local police forces to inspire young people to reach their potential, providing them with positive opportunities which divert them away from possible involvement in anti-social behaviour.
The pilot projects are delivered through the national Premier League Kicks programme, which involves 93 professional football clubs in some of the most high-need areas in England and Wales running free weekly football sessions and positive activities.
Established in partnership with the Metropolitan Police, Premier League Kicks delivery by clubs over the past 20 years has helped to inspire young people to reach their potential and create positive relationships between police and young people.
The pilot projects will build on these relationships, with projects tailored to individual need to support referred young people who are known to the police, helping to build community relationships and reduce the risk of offending across England and Wales.
"The Premier League has a long history of working with local police forces to provide positive opportunities for young people in our communities," said Clare Sumner, Chief Policy and Social Impact Officer at the Premier League. "We are delighted to expand this work, providing more positive interventions that will engage and support those who need us most."
Funded projects within the pilot have been co-designed by clubs and police to positively impact young people.
They include one-to-one mentoring for young people at risk of criminal exploitation, and intervention programmes to tackle knife crime and violence against women and girls.
To best support young people in the Lancashire region, nine clubs from across the leagues, including newly promoted Premier League side Burnley and National League North side AFC Fylde, will work in collaboration with the Lancashire Police and Crime Commissioner, Lancashire Police and Lancashire Violence Reduction Network to support young people aged between eight and-18 who are at risk of serious youth violence and exploitation.
The nine club charities will deliver targeted one-to-one mentoring and police-led workshops in addition to their core Premier League Kicks delivery.
Another such project will see Cardiff City deliver 80 targeted Premier League Kicks sessions for young people aged eight-to-25 across Cardiff, the Vale of Glamorgan, and Merthyr Tydfil.
Delivered in partnership with the South Wales Police and Crime Commissioner's Violence Prevention Unit and Welsh Government, sessions will strengthen efforts to build safer connected communities, using the power of football and community-based support to help young people to build better futures.
The charities of Premier League clubs Brighton & Hove Albion, Everton, Leicester City, Liverpool, West Ham United and Wolverhampton Wanderers will also take part in the pilot.
West Ham will work closely with Barking and Dagenham Police to strengthen relationships between the police and local community, while both Liverpool and Everton will partner with Merseyside Police to provide young people with positive pathways and diversionary activity to help them to reach their full potential.
The Police Partnerships Pilot builds on long-term partnerships at both local and national level between the Premier League and forces across the country.
This includes the existing relationship between the Premier League Charitable Fund and National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC), which sees the charitable arm of the Premier League work closely with the NPCC and 43 police forces across England and Wales to use the power of football to help reduce anti-social behaviour and foster meaningful change in areas across England and Wales.
What is Premier League Kicks?
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.