Kickz

All Premier League and 11 Football League clubs are involved in Kickz, which offers 12-18 year olds the chance to take part in positive activity three nights a week, 48 weeks of the year. The programme aims to ‘build safer, stronger communities through the development of young peoples’ potential’.
 
In addition to football coaching and competition, Kickz offers a range of other positive activities including other sports such as basketball, street dance, as well as music and arts workshops. Developmental and educational sessions are also run, dealing with issues such as healthy lifestyles and the dangers of getting involved in drugs and carrying weapons.
 
A local partnership including partners such as the local authority and police, support the development of Kickz, which also gives young people the chance to volunteer and give something back to their local community. Kickz also aims to break down barriers between young people and local police officers. Kickz was originally developed by the Metropolitan Police and the Premier League and is now managed centrally by the Football Foundation. It was launched in April 2006 with pilot projects at four founder clubs (Tottenham Hotspur FC, Fulham FC, Brentford FC and Manchester City FC).
 
Kickz was designed to:
engage young people in a range of constructive activities;
break down barriers between the police and young people;
reduce crime and anti-social behaviour in targeted neighbourhoods;
increase young people’s participation in sport and provide coaching and officiating opportunities; and
create routes into volunteering, education, training and employment.
 
Comparing a four-month period in the year before the Kickz pilots were launched with the same four-month period a year later, the police found crime was down on average by 27 per cent on the days and times when sessions were delivered.
 
Twenty per cent of Kickz sessions take place in the top one per cent most deprived wards in England, while 84 per cent take place in the most deprived quarter of wards.
 
Nine major police forces around the country supported Kickz in the 2006/2007 season (The Metropolitan Police Service, Merseyside, Greater Manchester, Northumbria, West Midlands, Cleveland, Lancashire, Hampshire and South Yorkshire Police forces) and the Association of Chief Police Officers.
 
DCFC and Kickz
 
We currently have 3 Kickz projects within Derby City. Our Derwent project based at the Steve Bloomer field is in its fourth year whilst our Derby Moor Kickz programme launched in February 2009. We are delighted to now be opening a third programme based within Normanton. We have over 250 young people taking part in the projects either on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday nights. The scheme has been a great success with reports of anti-social behaviour down nearly 20% in Derwent on Kickz nights.
 
Kickz participants representing DCFC play in regional and national festivals. The 2009 and 2010 national Under 14 and 16 finals have taken place at Pride Park Stadium. We were delighted and proud to be shortlisted for Club of the year at the 2009 Kickz National awards held at Wembley Stadium. Whilst we did not win this prestigious award the fact that we were shortlisted after only 3 years involvement in the national programme shows how well all our staff have done and the impact that we are having locally and nationally.

To find out more about Kickz please contact Rich Astle, Inclusion Manager, on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it