Argyle Community Trust: Using football to fight poverty and build community in Plymouth
Plymouth Argyle Football Club, known as the Argyle Community Trust, has gone beyond football.
It has built a social support network that touches the lives of some of the city’s most vulnerable residents.
Read on to learn more about this outstanding organization. Here’s what we have in common:
Group identity: The power for change
From reducing child poverty to mental health interventions, Argyle Community Trust shows how football club ownership can be a real force for change.
As well as winning the EFL’s Community Club for the 2024/25 season, the Trust has supported 101,218 people, aged from four months to 100 years old, delivering over one million contact hours.
Watch the video above, which explores the Trust’s approach and the partnerships that support its work.
A city with hidden poverty
Plymouth has an image that doesn’t match its reality. Its coastal location and rich history make it easy to imagine that the city is thriving, but that’s not the whole story.
Argyle Community Trust’s Head of Business Development, Dwain Morgan, is blunt: “There’s this misconception that Plymouth, based in sunny Devon and bordering Cornwall, is a very wealthy middle-class place where everyone thrives, but in reality Plymouth has a lot of social problems.
Those problems include high rates of illiteracy among the elderly, multigenerational unemployment, food insecurity, and fuel poverty—all challenges accentuated by rural fragmentation.
The level of child poverty prompted the action. The Trust has received findings which show that, on average, 35% of children in Plymouth experience poverty on a daily basis.
Rather than waiting for others to act, the club and the Trust concluded that their position, resources, and public relations gave them both the power and the responsibility to try to drive change.
That decision marked a significant change in the work of the Trust.
Why Project 35 does things differently
Project 35 was designed in collaboration with the Ginsters to address child poverty without adding to an already overcrowded intervention area.
Richard Luscombe, Marketing Manager at Argyle Community Trust, explains the philosophy: “We want to help reduce child poverty, but we want to do it in a different way and not reciprocate or diminish what’s happening in the rest of the city.”
The program focuses on sustainable skills, teaching families how to budget effectively and how to cook nutritious meals rather than handing out hard assistance. Food distribution is still part of the job, and making sure people in need eat is a priority.
Plymouth Argyle Football Club is much deeper than the men’s 11 who run on Saturday, or the women’s 11 who run on Sunday. We are here every second of every day, trying to bring change to the people who need it most.
Richard Luscombe, Marketing Manager, Argyle Community Trust
And the Trust is equally committed to building a long-term resilience model that reduces reliance on disaster support in the first place.
“It’s about sustainable movement,” says Richard, something that is evident in the relationships the Trust has built.
Members of the public now work with Argyle Community Trust for all their different needs, not just because of their connection to the football club, but because it has gained a reputation as a place where people genuinely care.
“It’s the only consistency they might have in their week,” Richard said.
Badge, type, and fight for funding
One of the Trust’s most important assets is the Plymouth Argyle FC brand itself. The Plymouth Argyle badge opens doors that a charity can’t.
“The razzmatazz is behind the football club badge and it’s actually linked to the football club”, said Dwain. “It allows us to break down barriers. It really elevates us to be able to make a big change.”
Services that may feel inaccessible or stigmatized become accessible when offered under the banner of a popular local agency.
The range of what the Trust now delivers reflects this expanded reach: bereavement support, dementia groups, fall prevention for the elderly, mental health interventions, housing guidance, and unemployment advice all alongside sports-based programmes.
Final thoughts: Sports are at the forefront of change
The Trust has the staff expertise, physical infrastructure and, most importantly, public relations to deliver in all these areas.
However, the funding situation presents a continuing challenge.
“There is less money to give to more charities, and the need to spend is greater than ever,” commented Richard.
The Trust’s strategy is to deepen its corporate and commercial relationships, pooling resources and expertise to maintain supply.
Their ambition is to keep sport at the forefront of driving change, and to ensure that the people in Plymouth who need the most support continue to receive it.
Businesses behind the badge
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