Preston North End Community and Education Trust (PNECET) has launched its 2025/26 Impact Report, covering a year in which 16,765 people engaged with its work across Preston and the surrounding areas.
The report, which covers July 2025 to June 2026, records £1.98 million invested in the community, 41 programmes and 15,542 delivery hours across Community Engagement, Education and Employment, and Health and Wellbeing. Working with consultancy Collins McHugh, the Trust calculates £16.6 million of social value, or £9.23 returned for every £1 invested.
Premier League Kicks engaged 1,072 young people, 72% of participants in the Champions mentoring programme had no further arrests, and ten young people returned to education. Education and Employment supported 5,537 people, including 2,910 pupils through Premier League Primary Stars, while Health and Wellbeing supported 5,804 people across 16 programmes. And 31% of the Trust's contracted staff progressed into employment through one of its own programmes or pathways.
John Hartley, Chief Executive Officer at PNECET, said: "Through more than 40 programmes, we tackled health inequalities, supported education and employment, promoted wellbeing and reduced isolation. Behind every statistic in this report is a person whose life has been enhanced."
That idea ran through the launch event at Deepdale on Friday 23 October, where participants told their own stories, as reported by Helen Kane of Forte Strengths. John Richardson spoke about spending time in prison and secure hospitals before meeting the Trust at Guild Lodge and being asked to volunteer. He is now a full-time Champions Mentor, using his lived experience to help young people make different choices.
In the report, John said: "The Trust has helped me grow in confidence and given me the opportunity to use my lived experience to support young people and help them make positive choices."
Others shared their journeys too: Marshall, 15, who joined Premier League Kicks and is now volunteering and working towards a coaching qualification; Jack Ainsworth, who went from the Trust's degree pathway to two years working in the United States and back to Preston as a mentor; and Joe, 83, who joined a 12-week health programme after visiting his GP with a bad back and can now bend and pick things up again.
For the sport for good sector, the report is a reminder that the figures and the people behind them belong in the same story.
Source: Preston North End Community and Education Trust, 23 October 2026 https://www.pnefc.net/news/2026/october/23/pnecet-launches-2025-26-impact-report/