Home Secretary, the Rt Hon Theresa May
Click on the Kickz publication (above) to
view the Kickz 5 Year Celebration.
Five years of Kickz hailed by the Home Secretary
Kickz, the partnership between the Premier League and the Metropolitan Police that uses football to create safer, stronger and more respectful communities, has reached a landmark fifth birthday.
To commemorate the success and progress of Kickz, a '5 Year Celebration' publication has been produced. The image-led document explains what Kickz is, details the headline figures from those five years and has forewords from Premier League Chief Executive Richard Scudamore and Tim Godwin, Deputy Commissioner for the Metropolitan Police. Also highlighted are eight club case studies, the first four pilot projects at Brentford, Fulham, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City, and a further four case studies emphasizing the role of the police, volunteers and partners.
In September there was also a reception at the House of Commons to celebrate the innovative project that targets some of the most challenging and disadvantaged communities which suffer from higher rates of crime and anti-social behaviour. The Home Secretary, the Rt Hon Theresa May, praised the work of Kickz saying: "We all know how many supporters enjoy watching football, but the idea of using its strength to help young people in this way is fantastic. I congratulate Richard Scudamore and Tim Godwin for coming together and making this idea work, because it is obviously having a tremendous impact across the whole country."
The Home Secretary added: "Kickz is a wonderful project and the number of young people involved is great. It's doing really good work enabling them to not just be taken out of situations in which they might get involved in gangs or crime, but actually giving young people a voice and enabling them to be heard. All those involved in it deserve a great deal of praise, especially those that volunteer, as they make it what it is."
There can be little doubt though that Kickz is a national success story: five years on, 113 local projects are being delivered by 43 clubs in the Premier League and Football League, helping in excess of 50,000 young people. There are over 650 partners including 61 local authorities, 64 steering groups, all 32 London Boroughs and 19 police force areas.
