Isthmian League

Hawks In The Community

Hawks in the Community

Founded in 2019, Hawks in the Community came about through the coming together of like-minded people who love football and who wanted to make a difference to, Whitehawk, one of the most deprived communities in the country.  

Darren Snow MBE, Gary Pleece, Mark Doidge, Simon Stevens, and Kevin Miller worked together to create a ground breaking new football based infrastructure that would see the development of community youth and adult football, programmes that focus on health & well-being and opportunities for the community to re-engage with education and training.

Foundation 2019

Hawks in The Community was founded in 2019 because of a lack of boys or girls youth football infrastructure in East Brighton. In the past football has played a crucial part in the development of local young people with many local teams playing grass roots football. It was also more common to have local footballers playing for Whitehawk FC. HITC want to see the football club and the community thrive again and we see this as a huge opportunity to make this happen.

 Crew Club Hawks FC

HITC want to develop a youth football infrastructure for boys and girls from under 6s to under 16s. All teams will play under the name of Crew Club Hawks FC and will play in the same style football kit as the first team at Whitehawk FC. Crew Club Hawks FC badge will be based on the Whitehawk FC badge and will be worn with pride. Linking with other opportunities that Whitehawk FC will be developing this new youth football infrastructure this will truly be a pathway to Whitehawk FC’s first team.

 Hawks Heroes 

HITC want to support the community’s health and well-being. This will be achieved in a number of ways including ‘Hawks Heroes.’ This football programme is based on the TV series Harry’s Heroes and aims to work with local residents to support their physical, mental, and emotional health & well-being through a range of health interventions. The project also provides opportunities for local people to re-connect with each other. Being social and having fun is at the heart of HITC.

 Adult Community Learning

HITC will aim to provide a range of adult community learning programmes in football coaching delivered by VYD CIC, Pleece & Co, and The Crew Club to the local community. The Crew Club is the ideal community setting to deliver a wide range of learning programmes supported by VYD CIC and Pleece & Co’s track record of delivering good quality sports education programmes.  


HITC Core Team

Darren Snow MBE: Strategic Manager & Co-Founder, The Crew Club
Gary Pleece: Football Delivery/ Marketing: Pleece & Co/ Montpelier Villa FC/VYD CIC
Simon Stevens: Project Development Manager: ‘Odds N’ Evens’/ Whitehawk FC Ultras
Mark Doidge: Social Impact, Social fund researcher: University of Brighton/Whitehawk FC Ultras
Kevin Miller: Head of Commercial/ Marketing: Whitehawk FC