Here's The 'Godmother' Of An Islington Estate That's Been Working With Arsenal To Support Youth

Life in the inner city of London isn’t one that many speak highly of because of the struggles some communities are forced to face and at times people are left with nothing much to hold on to. But Celia Facey is one woman that's determined to help every child on her estate whether that's through mentoring, her work with a food bank or her work with Arsenal.

The 67-year-old, already dubbed the 'god-mother' of her local estate by her own community in the borough of Islington, has been working with young people for more than a decade through Arsenal's Premier League Kicks program.

But her work as a coach - and a mother-figure - has not gone unnoticed as she was recently named Premier League Kicks “Local Legend” by Arsenal as part of the programme’s 15-year anniversary.

Celia's passion for working with young people started at an early age but it was when she became a volunteer youth worker and then subsequently met an employee from Arsenal, that things really kicked in.

She says she "never looked back," adding, “I did a bit of volunteering with Jamie and that was it I never looked back, I love working with the kids - I know a lot of them and their parents," she told Awallprintss.

Arsenal in the Community began its Premier League Kicks delivery in 2006/07 as a pilot club and since then has hosted 10,854 Kicks sessions, totalling 23,910 hours and engaged a total of 11,115 people.

As well as providing young people with access to free football and sports activities, clubs also run workshops on a variety of social issues, enabling young people to openly discuss topics that affect them, like equality, diversity and inclusion and combatting youth violence and knife crime.

The recognition for her services within the community did not stop with Arsenal - the leader of Islington Council Kaya Comer-Schwartz also said: “In a borough where we have 40% child poverty, it brings a lot of hope, it brings activity to young people, and it means they can have a lot of fun.

“Celia is an absolute legend – she’s here in all weathers, all year round! She’s really one of these quiet heroes that doesn’t ask anyone for anything but is there for our community throughout everything.”

Whilst acknowledging the accomplishments she received, the biggest sense of enjoyment for Celia comes from watching the children that she mentors grow.

Being able to “watch all the young people grow up from the estate” and seeing all the “accomplishments career wise,” gives her a sense of fulfilment, she said.

But after an extensive 15 plus year period of consistent volunteer work, one might think she would take a well-deserved break and step away. But Celia plans to keep going for as long as she can.