Ashfield police officers breaking down barriers with young people at community football sessions

Officers from the Ashfield neighbourhood team have been volunteering in their own time to help put on a range of sessions for boys and girls at The Lawn, in Sutton.

With support from Nottingham Forest Community Trust, Sutton Community Academy and Ashfield District Council, the officers are currently helping out with three sessions every Monday – one for a mixed group, one for girls and another targeted session for young people who’ve previously had contact with the police.

The idea is to support physical activity in young children and also break down existing barriers between young people and the police and to improve officers’ knowledge of what is happening in their local community.

The sessions were first floated by the neighbourhood team in early 2020 but were shelved due to the Coronavirus pandemic. However, after taking-off post-lockdown, the sessions have gone from strength-to-strength and now form part of Forest’s official Premier League Kicks programme.

PC James Brown, of the Ashfield Operation Reacher team, helped to get the sessions up and running. He now regularly helps out with colleagues Sergeant Paul Peatfield, PC Steve Johnson and PCSO Sue Braddock.

He said: “We wanted to do something to build better relationships with young people in our community and realised that the biggest thing most of us had in common is a love of football, so this really was a perfect fit.

“We now have more than 30 kids regularly attending our sessions and we are really starting to see some great results. We’ve seen a massive change in some of the kids and they are now having conversations with us that they would never have had in the past because they see us not just as police officers – but also as people they know and trust.”

Inspector Mark Dickson, district commander for Ashfield, said: “Members of our proactive Operation Reacher team we are perhaps best known for putting in doors and arresting suspected drug dealers, but another big part of our work is around building better and more trusting relationships in the community – because the more we know about our community the more we can help to address people’s problems and keep them safe.”

Free weekly sessions are held at Sutton Community Academy for girls only between 7pm and 8pm and on the 3g pitch at Sutton Lawn for a mixed session between 8pm and 9pm. To take part children between the ages of 11 and 18. Children need to be book their place via the QR codes on the Ashfield Police Facebook page.

Tom Norton, programmes coordinator at the Nottingham Forest Community Trust, said: “We really hit the ground running with this project straight out of lockdown. The first week we had around 15 young people turning up for a session – now it can be more than 30.”

Councillor Helen-Ann Smith, cabinet member for community safety at Ashfield District Council, said: “As someone who played football as a youngster I personally know the benefits it brings. It is a great way to break down barriers and a positive change has already been seen in a number of the youngsters attending.”

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