Maddie Henson

Lee Dema from St Matthews Project

1. 1. How are you helping to tackle child poverty in London?

   The majority of our participants live in the Brixton Rush Common and Coldharbour wards of Lambeth which are within the top 10% Deprivation Deciles nationally for crime and living environment.68% of our participants are entitled to free school meals.  At the heart of what we do is a desire to make sure that no child in our community is left behind. To help us realise that aim, we do a number of things. All of our activities are free, which is very important as the vast majority of the young people we work with cannot otherwise afford to make use of the limited sporting facilities available within the local area. To help those who cannot afford proper football boots, we have a scheme where people can donate second-hand boots in good condition to us. We run holiday programmes, which combine access to free high quality sporting activities with a nutritional meal, as well as free after-school snacks twice a week at our estate-based cage football sessions. Some children often take these snacks home for parents. We also hand out take and make boxes, to ensure that our participants are not going hungry, and provide feminine hygiene products to those who need them. We have recently secured some digital inclusion funding enabling us to buy equipment, so that we can support young people with their school work. During the lockdowns, we were able to provide free laptops and dongles to some of our families to ensure that they could fully participate in homeschooling.

   2. Tell us something you are excited about?

   We have seen a marked upturn in the number of young people accessing our services in recent years, particularly in the wake of the pandemic and the ongoing cost of living crisis.  We now regularly work with over 350 young people each week and have been expanding the range of programmes we offer. For example, we are now delivering innovative programmes  focused on improving young people’s mental health and wellbeing in school and community settings. Word of these programmes has spread beyond the project and we are now receiving increasing recognition from local councilors and other organisations for the quality of work we are doing in this area.

   3. Share with our members something positive about your organisation’s achievement or service?

   Football is a powerful hook for young people in our area and experience has shown us that it is the best means to deliver support and guidance. Due to the relationships we have built up with young people and their families over a long period of time, we have earned a legitimacy to advise and help them in a way that other organisations cannot.  Young people turn to St Matthew’s because our consistent approach to working with the community provides them with a sense of stability in increasingly uncertain times. As a result, we can maintain relationships with young people who are on the fringes of our community when they have cut themselves off from most or all of the other positive influences in their lives. Equally, it means that their families feel able to come to us for support when they are often reluctant to engage with statutory services. Our coaches are recruited from within the local community and include people who have been St. Matthew’s members who can then act as inspiring and positive role models to the participants. We find that using former participants, including ex-gang members, as coaches not only has a knock-on effect for that particular individual, but also on the young people they are working with, who begin to see what they could do in the future. Through our partnerships with local education providers, residents’ associations and community groups, we know that we are unique in the area in the type of sport and training programmes we deliver. Staff, parents, the police and young people all say that they think our activities offer something positive and can help deter young people from getting involved in more negative activities.

   4. What can other network members learn from you or find out more about through you?

   We are a good example of the importance of being firmly rooted in your local community. Being ‘hyper’ local can actually be an advantage, as it affords you the opportunity to really build up trust and credibility.  It isn’t always about trying to expand your geographical reach.

   5. What would most help you achieve your goals?

   Just like any other voluntary organisation, long-term funding is crucial to helping us achieve our goals. We currently have a very small staff team, comparative to the amount of services we are delivering to such a large number of young people. We need to look to increase our size in line with the demand for our programmes. In addition, help with reporting and data analysis would be goo

   6. Why did you join 4in10? What do you enjoy about being part of the 4in10 network?

   We joined the network to ensure that we are as well informed about child poverty issues as possible. It’s useful for us to be part of a group of organisations who understand the issue and challenges we face.