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Chris Willetts can testify to sport’s positive social impact after a 20-year career managing sports initiatives in diverse but deprived areas around the world. He says the opportunity “to be part of a collective all helping to evidence of the power of sport” made joining Levelling the Playing Field an easy decision.
Chris is co-founder of Platform Cricket, which aims to increase numbers of disadvantaged and ethnically diverse children participating in the game, and support their personal and social development.
The engagement process starts with Year 4 pupils in local primary schools, then moves on to sessions at ‘pop-up’ clubs in local parks in summer, or schools and leisure centres in winter. Matches and festivals soon follow.
As well as improving youngsters’ ability to deliver or whack a ball and the accompanying physical health benefits, the programme focuses on a host of pro-social outcomes, such as social cohesion, mental health, volunteering and employment opportunities and diversion from crime and radicalisation.
Chris is co-founder of Platform Cricket, which aims to increase numbers of disadvantaged and ethnically diverse children participating in the game, and support their personal and social development.
The engagement process starts with Year 4 pupils in local primary schools, then moves on to sessions at ‘pop-up’ clubs in local parks in summer, or schools and leisure centres in winter. Matches and festivals soon follow.
As well as improving youngsters’ ability to deliver or whack a ball and the accompanying physical health benefits, the programme focuses on a host of pro-social outcomes, such as social cohesion, mental health, volunteering and employment opportunities and diversion from crime and radicalisation.
As Chris says: “It’s clear straight away that a lot of things chime between what we’re doing and the aims of Levelling the Playing Field. Throughout my career I’ve always worked in areas where there have been issues with young people entering the Criminal Justice System.
“Coaches know their work has a positive impact, but it has always been really difficult to capture and quantify that, and highlight it to people who might be sceptical.
“For me, if there’s a collective of people who are doing that work, growing evidence and producing broad and in-depth research, then we definitely want to be a part of it.”
Chris has already identified a young coach on his programme who will undertake Levelling the Playing Field’s mentoring training. This will enable him to offer participants more specialised support at Platform Cricket’s ‘hub’ in Deptford and New Cross, which has been ‘assigned’ as an LtPF session.
Chris played representative cricket for Worcestershire and in the Minor Counties Championship for Herefordshire before moving to London in 2004 to become School Sport Partnership Manager in Tower Hamlets. This role (and some time spent working in South African townships while playing abroad) gave him immense experience in delivering sport to children from diverse and/or under-privileged backgrounds.
He gained an understanding that the established ‘school to club’ route of growing a sport didn’t always work in areas where children faced a variety of barriers to participation in the community.
“Coaches know their work has a positive impact, but it has always been really difficult to capture and quantify that, and highlight it to people who might be sceptical.
“For me, if there’s a collective of people who are doing that work, growing evidence and producing broad and in-depth research, then we definitely want to be a part of it.”
Chris has already identified a young coach on his programme who will undertake Levelling the Playing Field’s mentoring training. This will enable him to offer participants more specialised support at Platform Cricket’s ‘hub’ in Deptford and New Cross, which has been ‘assigned’ as an LtPF session.
Chris played representative cricket for Worcestershire and in the Minor Counties Championship for Herefordshire before moving to London in 2004 to become School Sport Partnership Manager in Tower Hamlets. This role (and some time spent working in South African townships while playing abroad) gave him immense experience in delivering sport to children from diverse and/or under-privileged backgrounds.
He gained an understanding that the established ‘school to club’ route of growing a sport didn’t always work in areas where children faced a variety of barriers to participation in the community.
The local ‘pop-up’ club concept - delivering sport right on children’s doorsteps in local parks - was something Chris had had success with to combat this and it formed the basis of Platform Cricket’s initial pilot project in Deptford and New Cross in 2017. Extra impetus to the launch was provided by support from a local south-east London lad, Kent and England Lions batsman Daniel Bell-Drummond, who is currently one of only eight black British players in county cricket.
By 2019, the programme had expanded to eight ‘hubs’ around Lewisham, Greenwich and Tower Hamlets. Despite the ravages of Covid-19 there were 17 by the end of 2020. The projected rate of growth is for 30 to exist across 14 London boroughs by the end of 2021.
Each new ‘hub’ typically begins with five weeks’ delivery in a primary school, then 10-15 weeks in local parks in the summer months (a partnership with the London Cricket Trust ensures drop-in pitches are laid in public spaces) and 15-20 weeks in school sports halls or leisure centres in winter. In the first year there are six soft-ball ‘festival’ competitions a year, moving to weekly hard-ball, eight-a-side ‘pairs cricket’ matches in year two.
“It’s very local,” explains Chris. “The idea is to remove as many barriers as possible, get kids’ interest incubated and giving them as much chance as possible to move them on to ‘proper’ cricket.”
Gangs, knife crime, county lines and anti-social behaviour are among the issues Platform Cricket coaches encounter in some participants and amongst their older siblings and families. Staff are trained to identify signs of Adverse Childhood Experiences that can leave young people vulnerable to crime and violence and provided with a safeguarding support network.
By 2019, the programme had expanded to eight ‘hubs’ around Lewisham, Greenwich and Tower Hamlets. Despite the ravages of Covid-19 there were 17 by the end of 2020. The projected rate of growth is for 30 to exist across 14 London boroughs by the end of 2021.
Each new ‘hub’ typically begins with five weeks’ delivery in a primary school, then 10-15 weeks in local parks in the summer months (a partnership with the London Cricket Trust ensures drop-in pitches are laid in public spaces) and 15-20 weeks in school sports halls or leisure centres in winter. In the first year there are six soft-ball ‘festival’ competitions a year, moving to weekly hard-ball, eight-a-side ‘pairs cricket’ matches in year two.
“It’s very local,” explains Chris. “The idea is to remove as many barriers as possible, get kids’ interest incubated and giving them as much chance as possible to move them on to ‘proper’ cricket.”
Gangs, knife crime, county lines and anti-social behaviour are among the issues Platform Cricket coaches encounter in some participants and amongst their older siblings and families. Staff are trained to identify signs of Adverse Childhood Experiences that can leave young people vulnerable to crime and violence and provided with a safeguarding support network.
As well as being simply a diversionary activity from the temptations of crime, Platform Cricket has a notable impact on social cohesion. The great diversity of participants helps reduce the ‘trust deficit’ that exists between children from different socio-economic backgrounds – who quite often live cheek-by-jowl in London communities.
The demographics of Platform Cricket’s participants are made up of 31% black children, 24% Asian, 6% mixed ethnicity and 37% white (half of whom are European or mixed European).
Almost half (48%) reported they had significantly increased the amount of time spent with children from different backgrounds whilst on the Platform programme, while 52% reported an increased sense of pride in their area as a result of representing it in Platform’s competitions.
“Our programme is much, much broader than just trying to replicate what a cricket club would do,” explains Chris. “The activities have personal and social development at heart – problem-solving, team-building, discipline, sportsmanship, mental health and access to positive role models in our network of coaches.
“For those children who progress through our programme, their horizons have expanded far beyond some of their peers’, who have tended to stay within their micro-environment in a particular estate or neighbourhood.
“Looking long-term, our programme gives our players a better view of the purpose of sport and physical activity. Also the positive experiences we’re giving them of being around people different to themselves will give them a more rounded world view and encourage them to contribute positively to society and pass that on when they come to be parents themselves.”
Follow Platform Cricket on Twitter and Instagram.
The demographics of Platform Cricket’s participants are made up of 31% black children, 24% Asian, 6% mixed ethnicity and 37% white (half of whom are European or mixed European).
Almost half (48%) reported they had significantly increased the amount of time spent with children from different backgrounds whilst on the Platform programme, while 52% reported an increased sense of pride in their area as a result of representing it in Platform’s competitions.
“Our programme is much, much broader than just trying to replicate what a cricket club would do,” explains Chris. “The activities have personal and social development at heart – problem-solving, team-building, discipline, sportsmanship, mental health and access to positive role models in our network of coaches.
“For those children who progress through our programme, their horizons have expanded far beyond some of their peers’, who have tended to stay within their micro-environment in a particular estate or neighbourhood.
“Looking long-term, our programme gives our players a better view of the purpose of sport and physical activity. Also the positive experiences we’re giving them of being around people different to themselves will give them a more rounded world view and encourage them to contribute positively to society and pass that on when they come to be parents themselves.”
Follow Platform Cricket on Twitter and Instagram.