The Palace For Life Foundation - Changing Lives In South London
- insightpalace
- Feb 4
- 6 min read
Updated: Feb 11
What makes a football club?
You would probably need to start with some players. Over time, you may even gain some fans. Add in a board of directors and you're starting to shape up nicely. Crystal Palace Football Club even has it in the name.
But what makes it more than just players and some people following the results? Being a truly effective and fulfilling football club rests on leaving a lasting impact on your surrounding community and the people in it. Performance on the pitch is one thing, however, ensuring there is a legacy in and around the club’s local community leaves a lasting sense of longevity.
The Palace For Life Foundation (PFL) have been working in and around south London for over 30 years, working tirelessly to better the community for its residents. The foundation has grown exponentially over the years, enabling more people to be accessed and helped.
PFL works closely with other 18,000 young people, helping to provide free activity sessions, ran by coaches and mentors. PFL help people of all ages, running programmes from ages 5, all the way up to 90 years old.
The younger generation can access a range of after school classes, including girls and boys football sessions, basketball, boxing, dancing, and 'Youth Hubs'.
Walking football is available for the adults, as well as a campaign called 'Extra Time', which is partnered with the Salvation Army, to offer older people the chance to combat loneliness and enjoy various types of informal physical activity.
All these sessions are completely free of charge.
That’s the great thing about this department is that young people get to have a taster, try things for the first time, hone their skills and then go onto a positive progression route.
PFL hold many fundraisers which Palace fans get involved in, with a record 250 fans taking part in the ‘Marathon March’ held last year, breaking another record to raise £125,000.
Despite originally focussing on delivering football courses, education has grown to be a vital part of the foundation, which participants can then carry forward with them throughout their lives.
Susan Patterson-Smith joined Palace in 2014, after working with young people coming out of prison. She had previously ran her own business delivering training courses but joined PFL as an Education Manager.
"I was approached to do a piece of work delivering training to young people who had just come out of prison. At the end of the three weeks training, I was asked by a friend who worked at PFL if I'd ever thought about working at the foundation.
"I wasn't a football fan, I'd never even heard of the foundation. But he started telling me about the work they did, and I thought this was interesting."
Over the years, Patterson-Smith and her dedicated team have grown the education department, allowing the team to access more young people in need.
"My day to day is all about finding the best opportunities for young people to progress into lots of different pathways. Thinking about my childhood growing up, it felt like there was so much on offer – youth clubs, spaces, and connections – but now there’s been a big change in how young people access this help. That’s the great thing about this department is that young people get to have a taster, try things for the first time, hone their skills and then go onto a positive progression route.
“It’s also designed for people that have fallen off the wagon, getting involved with something they shouldn’t have, we can help steer them back to a positive place.”
PFL also have a long-established relationship with various local services, to help establish a network of support accessible for the community. Social services, The Metropolitan Police, and local councils are all readily on hand to help PFL, meaning they can offer the best support possible.
“A lot of the work is linked to the big statutory services. Many young people who are leaving care, their life chances and progression have often been thwarted because of their experiences. A lot of young people also struggle at school, with more focus now on working with neurodivergent children."
The education department at PFL help children through a variety of ways, which has grown over the years from when the department first started.
“When I first joined, we ran a small employability programme. You could update your CV, learn interview skills and so forth. But we realised over the years that the programmes weren’t giving young people the wherewithal to hold down a job. So, we now have a four-part training programme, which includes members of staff being readily available to check in with the young people for anything they need.
“We run trips up to ITN News for example, to introduce the young people to new networks of people”.
The education department and PFL as a whole rely heavily on donations to keep their outreach programmes going. Patterson-Smith made it clear that fundraisers and involvement from the Crystal Palace fanbase is vital to ensuring they can continue to carry out their work.
“We are privy to funding from the Premier League, however, if Palace were to get relegated, we would then lose that funding. We have 15 full-time members of staff, 100 part-time members of staff, so we are constantly looking at funding streams.
“So having something like the marathon march, the charity bike ride, this is unrestricted funding that comes in. It helps to run the foundation, without it, we’d be in big trouble."
Alongside running educational programmes, the PFL foundation was built on offering outreach programmes for young people. Football sessions have been run in and around south London for as long as the foundation has been going. The sessions are still running today, with more availability and more areas covered.
“When I first came in there were ten full-time staff, but now we’ve got around 50 full-time members of staff, so we’ve seen that growth of the foundation.
Jamie Broughton was a participant of the football sessions with his friends in 2007 during his college years. He has since gone on to work for PFL for 12 years and counting. Jamie runs the community engagement team, who focus on outreach work and social inclusion.
“Having been a part of these programmes, being from Croydon and a huge Palace fan, I see what the work we do means to people. I always think what would my legacy be if I were to leave.
“We go out to communities where you might have underrepresented groups or young people that might not have everything they need to succeed. I look after the team that goes out and delivers 40 sessions a week that run of an evening. I also look at the strategic side to ensure we’re helping the five boroughs in south London.”
The 'Premier League Kicks' sessions that are run by Broughton's community engagement team also include disability classes.
“We have the football side that falls under the community engagement bit, but we also have power-chair football, VI [visually impaired] football, and the Down Syndrome Eagles. It just ensures we’re inclusive to as many people as possible.”
The Down's Syndrome Eagles featured in this season’s first-team squad photo, alongside the FA Cup and the Community Shield."
Broughton has seen huge change and growth of the foundation since he joined in 2012, with funding, similarly with Patterson-Smith, a hot topic of conversation.
“When I first came in there were ten full-time staff, but now we’ve got around 50 full-time members of staff, so we’ve seen that growth of the foundation.
“We’re fortunate with fundraising initiatives, such as the Marathon March, but there’s always the worry that you could lose that Premier League funding [through relegation], so we’re always thinking about how we could supplement that funding if we were to lose it.”
The club went a step further this season with getting the foundation front and centre , with the men’s first team playing in the European Conference League with ‘Palace For Life’ as the sponsor on the kit.
The future for PFL looks bright, with the team (hopefully) advancing away from relegation scraps to eyeing higher finishes in the league. Speaking to the many people involved with PFL, their passion for their work instantly shone through.
They went above and beyond to help with this feature piece, just as they go above and beyond every day in the local community. There is a strong, proud link growing between the fanbase and PFL, which hopefully only continues to blossom.
Links to the Palace For Life website and donation link are below ⬇️
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