How rugby is tackling the challenges for Children and Young People with ACES – giving back

This is a story about connection, the real power of sport way – way more than the results on the field of play. It’s about values, teamwork and making a sustainable difference for others. And it’s about something deeper and beyond what we think, it’s about what we feel and our purpose. For me anyway.

Are there times when you have met people in life and you think or, perhaps better, intuitively feel that it’s happened for a reason? There are a few for me and a man called Garry Gordon is one.

Twenty years ago I became the inaugural chair of the Sussex region of Wooden Spoon (www.woodenspoon.org). One day Sussex region wasn’t ‘a thing’ and the next day it was, in that it had a newly elected committee but no presence in the local rugby community and no funds to help disadvantaged children and young people (CYP). I’d become the Chair because I chose the wrong time in the evening to go for a comfort break – the election of officers. Sometimes you have to learn the hard way.

So, in a moment of inspiration, I contacted East Grinstead RUFC because even before sevens rugby festivals had become popular they had been running the ‘Sunshine Sevens’ for years and I wanted to see if Wooden Spoon could be their benefitting charity. I went cap in hand to the organising committee and with ‘smooth talk and influence’ – as if – I succeeded in my mission.

The partnership was a great success and made a significant step to not only putting Sussex Wooden Spoon on the map regionally but also enabling us to fund our first project – an independent living area for the students at Chailey Heritage School (chf.org.uk). I resigned my position after three years in which time we’d gone from being a start-up project to being in the top five fundraisers in the country. My work there was done.  

Garry Gordon and I connected on LinkedIn and for twenty years we have been ‘Facebook’ type connections, liking each other’s work anniversaries and all that nonsense. In January this year we’d had one such exchange and I followed this up with a message suggesting we might have a beer to celebrate the 20^th anniversary. How often do you put the words ‘Irishman’ and ‘Dry January’ in the same sentence I ask you? 

As a consequence we met, and spoke, for the first time in twenty years in Tulley’s Tea Rooms. We gave each other a resume of what we’d both done and achieved in the intervening years. We had been on different tracks but in many ways on the same journey. Garry said, ‘So why has it taken us twenty years to have a meeting?’  My answer? ‘Because we had to do what we were meant to do first.’

Garry has retained a considerable influence in EG rugby and has led it through a period of significant change – boom to bust and put it back on its feet again. In view of his involvement and love of the club he was seriously affected by the tragic murder of policeman Sgt Matt Ratana in a Croydon custody cell in 2020 because Matt was also Director of Rugby at the club.

Garry and colleagues wanted to create a positive legacy out of the trauma that affected so many people and so they formed the Matt Ratana Rugby Foundation. The Matt Ratana Rugby Foundation (MRRF). I was one of thousands who remember that incident and I saw that maybe there was an opportunity for me to help here. Actually I didn’t see the opportunity and nor did I think there was one, I felt it. And as we talked I learnt about a partnership between MRRF and two other rugby based charities The Atlas Foundation and STAR Scheme.

All three organisations have collaborated and are working together creating ‘Tackle London’ which is being supported by the Mayor of London’s ‘New Deal for Young People’ initiative. How the partnership works can be seen in this video What We Do – TackleLondon The need becomes more and more urgent as more children suffer Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs).

• In a 2024 report the Youth Endowment Fund (a charity that looks to reduce the number of CYP involved in violence) showed that the number of CYP involved in knife violence (an ACE) is on the increase.
• In the recent riots sparked by the tragic events in Southport there was a considerable number of children and young people arrested and charged with criminal offences.
• But ACEs aren’t just restricted to violence. There are increasing numbers of CYP who are absent from school. The System is geared to fine parents for non-attendance. But the System needs reform and help too because many CYP are suffering anxiety issues (especially since COVID) and there needs to be initiatives that are helpful (like Tackle London) and not punitive.

The team have very kindly invited me to help them grow Tackle and I was delighted to volunteer my wisdom and knowledge of the sports sector. The initial aim is to be in every London borough but there is no reason (other than the small matter of funding) why Tackle shouldn’t be a national programme and not just restricted to rugby union either. I know the Rugby Football League is doing great work in setting up Community Wellbeing Hubs (because I initiated the project!) so both codes of rugby can be used in different ways to have a sustainable social impact.

There is a significant step towards that ambition this week because Ms Natasha Irons MP, the MP for Croydon East, is sponsoring a House of Commons reception for us which has enabled Tackle London to bring together leaders in sport, politics, health, law and order and the media  to discuss how we can grow the project (and rattle a few collecting buckets) to make a sustainable difference for some children and young people in England. I cannot wait!