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11 October, 2023

Grant amount: £15,000

The St Matthew’s Project

  • Grant programme: Active Lives
  • Region: London

Towards core costs associated with the delivery of activities, development opportunities and support for young people on and off the pitch

About the organisation

SMP provides a safe and encouraging environment where 3-25-year-olds can come together and enjoy structured football sessions and other activities. We help children and young people living mainly in the Windrush and Coldharbour wards of Lambeth fulfil their potential and have a real impact on their community. What began as a kick-about in Brockwell Park is now a thriving youth project, offering a growing array of programmes and services to over 350 young people each week, bringing them together from three different estates which historically would not have anything to do with each other. Our current activities include weekly turn-up-and-play sessions for both sexes; a Family Football and Literacy Programme; estate-based sports sessions; and a Fit for Life programme combining free football with mental wellbeing workshops. For those aged 16+, we offer free F.A coaching courses, construction work training opportunities and a volunteering programme.

Organisation’s objectives

It is part of our ethos to offer those we work with more than just the chance to participate in a football project. We support young people to make the transition from sports participation to accessing further sporting, educational or employment opportunities as they get older. Through continued engagement we help young people develop their personal skills and strengths and tackle any weaknesses they feel they might have. In this way, we aim to meet the needs of local young people, raise their aspirations and help them steer clear of a life of crime and gang-related activity. There are 5 key outcomes which underpin all areas of our work:

  • More young people from disadvantaged backgrounds engaging in positive activities which support them to break away from involvement in anti-social behaviour and other harmful behaviours.
  • Increased confidence and motivation for the young people engaged.
  • Young people are more autonomous.
  • Young people have strong and supportive peer/social networks.
  • Raised aspirations.

About the project

The funding was used to enable us to employ a part-time assistant to our Programme Manager.  Daniel has supported the Programme Manager in the roll out of our bespoke coaching programme.  His work has been with the 5 – 16-year-old age range, with a focus on building up their resilience and supporting them to make positive choices, thereby reducing their risk of future involvement in anti-social behaviour. Daniel has worked closely with our Mental Health and Wellbeing Worker to deliver this work.  He has also been responsible for overseeing our estate-based cage football programme, which allows us to deliver activities in areas where there would otherwise be none. Daniel has also played an important role in carrying out all the duties associated with an SMFC match day

Impact of PHF’s support

We have experienced a marked upturn in the number of young people accessing our services in the wake of Covid19 and the ongoing cost of living crisis and were struggling to keep up with the demand.  The creation of the Assistant Programme Manager post has enabled us to manage the increasing numbers of young people coming to us for support.  Daniel has regularly been working with over 100 young people each week.  He has also been mentoring some of our younger coaches, many of whom are former SMP participants.  Having Daniel in post has also enabled us to improve the match day experience for both SMFC teams and their opponents.  It might sound like something which would make little difference, but having an extra staff member has ensured that we have the capacity to launder the kit each week.  This means that all our young people, and their opponents, are give clean bibs to wear.  Experience has shown us that this is in fact something which matters a great deal to young people.

How does your organisation exemplify PHF’s values?

Ensuring sustainability is at the heart of everything we do. It is part of our ethos to offer those we work with more than just the chance to participate in a football project. We support young people to make the transition from sports participation to accessing further sporting, educational or employment opportunities as they get older. Through continued engagement we help young people develop their personal skills and strengths and tackle any weaknesses they feel they might have. In this way, we aim to meet the needs of local young people, raise their aspirations and help them steer clear of a life of crime and gang-related activity. Since we work with young people right up until they are in their mid-twenties, we are also well-placed to offer those progressing through our programmes an established exit route into further structured and age-appropriate sporting and employment opportunities.

Our coaches are recruited from within the local community and include people who have come through the scheme themselves (including ex-gang members), who can then act as inspiring and positive role models to the participants.  To date, we have produced over 200 F.A.-qualified local coaches.  We find that using former participants as coaches not only has a knock-on effect for the individual concerned, but also on the young people they are working with, who begin to see what could be on offer to them in the future.  We believe that this also enhances the integrity of our project, as participants can see that we are firmly rooted in the community and that our staff have a genuine understanding of what it is like to grow up in a disadvantaged part of south London.

The young people we work with are at the heart of everything we do, and as such we are continually striving for excellence to ensure that we are best placed to meet their needs. Whilst we may be a relatively small grassroots organisation, which requires the support of volunteers to deliver our programmes, we are acutely aware of the need to always act with professionalism.