At a Premier League Kicks session in East London, Idris Elba is hearing about a boy who wore a stab vest and three pairs of tracksuit bottoms to training sessions – to try to keep himself safe.
“He was killed on the way to a session,” a youth worker tells the Hollywood actor. “I was one of his mentors. We were all completely devastated. This is children killing children.”
Although they were unable to save the young person’s life, staff at Kicks – a collaboration between the Premier League and the Met Police – were able to step in to help prevent retaliations by offering pizza along with police support to keep young people off the streets. “Seeing that happen to one of our own – it made us much, much stronger,” the young woman, from a Kicks project outside London, told him.
“Half of our staff came through Kicks themselves, and they can build that rapport. Nobody played any football. We sat, reminisced and grieved together. There was no further retaliation.”
Elba’s journey from acclaimed actor to anti-knife crime campaigner and documentary-maker, has brought him home – to East London, where he is visiting a sports centre on Britain’s largest council estate, the Becontree in Dagenham. But while the father-of-three hears from youth workers and mentors about the desperate fight they are in for children’s lives, he also takes inspiration from the kids out playing on a wet astro-turf pitch on a dark February night.
“Look at these kids, away from the fearful things, out in the rain, happy as Larry, playing football,” he says, as he watches a training session. “It’s great to see some hope injected into what is actually quite a grim time –especially when it comes to knife crime.
“These kids give me hope. When I said to them: ‘Do you think this helps young people over the country stay away from knife crime and violence?’ They were like: ‘Yes.’ You never know what any of these kids are going through at home, what their environment is. But here feels like family. It really did resonate.”
It’s one year since 52-year-old Elba stood in Parliament Square surrounded by neat piles of teenagers’ clothes to launch his ‘Don’t Stop Your Future’ campaign. Each represented a life lost to knife crime. As MPs arrived at work, they passed 247 piles of clothes.
Statistics are not collated until later in the year, but figures collected by the Ben Kinsella Trust suggest a five per cent increase so far. Another square full of clothes. “I don’t just think about those young people,” Idris says. “I think about all the people affected. You would need all of Parliament Square and beyond for that.”
Since we last spoke, the government has changed – and Labour has pledged to halve knife offences in a decade. Elba has joined Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s anti-knifecrime coalition, which brings together victims’ families, tech companies, police and others. He has also made a hard-hitting documentary, Our Knife Crime Crisis, for the BBC.
“There can never be enough change, in terms of this subject,” he says. “We have to keep pushing and pushing. Even if we have small wins, they are incremental movements forward.” Elba is at the Sports Hub – named after local Barking lad Bobby Moore – in Dagenham to surprise one of the youth coaches and mentors, Arran Johnny, with an award.
With him is Jarrod Bowen, the West Ham captain and England forward, and the Hammers’ head coach, Graham Potter. “Arran got his award today because he’s helping provide a safe space for young people and really helps to change their lives,” Bowen says. “He says this place has really changed him. Now he does the same for anyone thinking of going down that path.”
Bowen recently became a father himself, to twins Star and Summer, with his partner former Love Islander Dani Dyer, and is a stepdad to her son Santiago. Out on the astro, kids from the Kicks project start whispering Bowen’s name excitedly when they see him approach. “I really enjoy coming down here and being part of it,” he says. “It’s nice to put a smile on their faces. Without this place, some young people might be lost.”
Coach Arran is clearly stunned to receive his “Community Captain” award from the club captain, West Ham coach and a Hollywood actor. “I didn’t have a mentor when I was younger,” he says. “Maybe things would have been different if I did. A mentor can help you have awareness of who you have around you. Are they nice to you for a wrong reason or a right reason?”
Also meeting Elba is Najma Shariffu, who joined the Kicks programme after school 11 years ago and has been a full-time coach since 2017. “I always loved playing football but for cultural reasons I wasn’t allowed to play out of school,” she says. “There wasn’t a lot of space where I lived in Newham, and it helped that Kicks was free to attend.
“I used to suffer with anxiety. I used to have the worst self-confidence. I couldn’t speak to anyone. Kicks taught me to use my voice.”
The young coaches say they know their work is saving lives. “Their parents tell us the difference we’ve made,” Arron says.
Kicks was launched almost 20 years ago as a collaboration between the Premier League and the Met Police – but recently received a boost as part of the PL’s £1.6bn ‘More than a Game’ investment in communities.
Over 90 clubs across the Premier League, English Football League and National League cover 38 police force areas to provide young people with access to free weekly football sessions. The Becontree estate was built for car workers Elba’s dad, Winston, who worked at Ford Dagenham for 25 years. Elba joined him for two years on the nightshift as a struggling young actor on the factory floor.
“I would have been in the catchment area for this project,” Elba says. “There are kids here from Canning Town where I grew up, and from all over Newham. So, actually, it hit home even more so that these kids are in the borough that I spent my formative years in.”
Despite growing up in east London, Elba supports a rival north London team – Arsenal. “I ended up supporting Arsenal because of abuse,” Elba explains. “The local team fans would abuse us they went past our school. That’s what happened back then. So, I ended up supporting a different team.”
Now, he is back, a big star signing a West Ham shirt for the club.
At the Sports Hub – named after local Becontree lad Bobby Moore – Elba hears from young mentors and coaches from different football clubs across the Kicks’ project.
One by one, they tell Elba how they were motivated to join Kicks by losing friends to youth violence, or in some cases escaping gangs themselves.
“Being here made me think,” Elba tells them. “In the film industry, what is the equivalent of Kicks? If I work in tech, what is the equivalent of Kicks? There’s a real roadmap there that other industries could definitely benefit from.
“I describe myself as someone who’s got a soapbox. I’m a parent, that’s it. I’m no expert on youth crime, but I do know that we’re in a crisis and that we’ve got to stand up and do something and there has to be joined-up thinking, the way you guys are doing it.
“It really is impressive. It’s heart-warming. I grew up in Newham. When I was 14 years old, I decided to become an actor. Everyone was either playing football outside or fighting with the local school at lunchtime or after school. I was in drama club. That was lonely! They were like: ‘Are you mad? Look how big you are. We need you round here!’
“I was like: ‘No, no. I really like this.’ It’s a lonely road. Hearing what you’ve gone through, there’s a common story. Having that fork in the road.”
While 4,600 miles away, the glitz and glamour of the Superbowl is unfolding. The soggy pitch on the Becontree is a world away. “The Superbowl looks really nice,” Elba says. “But I’m here because I have hope. I’m generally a hopeful person – and these kids are the ultimate sign of hope.”
