Steve Waggott

"By using the universal language and 21st century appeal of football and sport we can bring people and communities closer together whilst also assisting in raising the aspirational levels of individuals right across London."

What does sustainable development mean to you?
I feel very strongly that sustainable development and improvement in the quality of life can only be fully realised and achieved by forward thinking proactive organisations from all sectors (public, private and voluntary) joining forces, and combining their resources and specialist skills in to a coherent community focused strategy that will make London a better and safer place to live, work and spend your leisure time in.

As Chief Executive of a professional football club in South East London, I am very focused on using the universal language and the power of football and sport to raise the aspiration levels of the community and the feel good factor of the area we are located in. By making our football stadium a community integrated facility that and by developing a very outward facing organisation Charlton Athletic has become much more than just a football club.

As a Football Club we take both our iconic sports position in the area and our corporate social responsibility (CSR) very seriously and have developed one of the biggest sports community trusts in the world over the last five years that has become the delivery arm for all our community programmes, projects and initiatives across South London & Kent.
The approach of developing a community trust on the back of a professional club has been tremendously success and has gained us numerous awards over the last few years including:

• The Big Tick from Business in the Community (BITC)
• The Silver Jubilee Award from BITC
• Best Community Trust from the Football League
• Best Community Scheme from the Professional Football Association
• Community Club of the Year at the 2009 Football League Awards

The Charlton Athletic Community Trust was designed to pull together all our various strands of community work under one umbrella and now delivers a range of projects, programmes and initiatives to over 300,000 participants a year. The Trust delivers education programmes in primary and secondary schools across the Region and are involved in pupil referral units; it delivers coaching qualifications in youth remand centres and prisons; runs the biggest Social Inclusion Kickz initiative in the UK; delivers estate based programmes in Greenwich, Bexley and Kent; is assisting in health programmes around smoking cessation, teenage pregnancy and mental health and has recently launched a huge initiative around gangs, guns and knives entitled 'Street Violence Ruins Lives'.

What does being a London Leader mean to you?
I believe that the London Leaders programme is an ideal vehicle for a range of 'like minded' and proactive people from all walks of London Life to work closely together to improve the quality of life for all those who visit or live in London. I strongly believe in a multi agency approach that involves all sectors to harness the views, opinions and skills of people and organisations to maintain and grow the reputation of London as a world class city.