The Trust Interviews... Daniel Douglas, Head of Luton Town Community Trust
This interview appeared in the Cardiff City programme
Today’s Trust Interview features Daniel Douglas, appointed as Head of Luton Town Community Trust in May 2025 – but a familiar figure, having previously spent eight years as the Community Trust’s Operations Manager before two years as Head of Business Development for the Bedfordshire & Luton Community Foundation.
Daniel is Luton through and through, and we started by asking him about his background and what has inspired him to commit himself to community work…
I’m 37, 38 next month, Luton born and bred, and I have two young children, four and one. I was brought up in one of the estates in the north of the town, Marsh Farm, and sports – football especially – have always been a massive part of my life. If I wasn't playing football at school during playtime and lunchtime, I’d be down my local field or tunnel or garages, playing against my friends. In those days, I was pretty boisterous, but out in the community there are always role models and mine were my PE teachers, sports club leaders and youth workers, who put me in the right direction and gave me guidance. I always thought that was exactly what I want to do when I came of age, so as I got a bit older I studied sports and football and took my coaching qualifications, with my family always supportive – we’re very close.
I did a bit of part time coaching with Luton and Arsenal soccer schools and wanted to turn this into a career pathway so moved to St Matthews Primary School in High Town, a deprived area of Luton, first as an activity leader out in the playing areas then working my way up to become a classroom supervisor and gaining teaching qualifications. By day I worked as a teacher and in the evenings continued to be a youth worker and a football coach on the estates in Luton.
I was at the school for eight years, then the job of the Luton Town Community Trust Operations Manager came up and I was successful with my application. It was a hard decision to leave teaching but the role I moved to was using all I’d learnt – and being paid to work with lots of young versions of myself and provide a bit of inspiration and support. That’s what drove me then and still does every day!
I worked as Operations Manager for eight years, but really wanted to become Head of the Community Trust and realised that I needed to further myself in terms of business skills and senior leadership. So I moved to our local grant funder, Bedfordshire and Luton Community Foundation, where I gained valuable experience around business development and strengthened my skills across areas such as fundraising and adapting to different leadership styles. I was there for two years, then the Luton Town Community Trust leadership role came up. I applied, and here I am now!
Tell us, in a nutshell, what the Community Trust is all about
Our mission is across four thematic areas: health, education, employment and football opportunities, with programmes for everyone from zero months old to ninety-nine (or more!). We aim to connect and engage with every member of the community, in Luton and Bedfordshire, using the power of the club badge.
So how does that work across those four areas?
Our health programmes align with the Luton 2040 vision of tackling health inequality. We have Healthy Hatters, run at the stadium, where anyone can turn up for regular set sessions whether they have low level fitness – or have higher fitness levels and just want to ensure they partake in regular activity. I’d like to take this approach into schools, especially bearing in mind that our home is based in Bury Park, where there’s a huge focus on addressing health inequality and participation for South Asian communities.
Our Education and Employment Manager, Bert Klemmer, delivers programmes that help under 18s develop essential skills, enhance their education and gain the confidence to become work ready. We also offer education and employment programmes for over 18s, designed to open pathways into the football club.
One example is our collaboration with the club’s Health and Safety Manager, Barney McGhee, to fund stewarding qualifications – a great way to showcase to our local communities the career opportunities available within football. We’re also partnering with Cris da Silva, who leads the club’s catering services, to create pathways towards catering and hospitality qualifications.
Through our wider engagement with the football club, we give young participants valuable behind the scenes exposure to areas such as administration, commercial operations, media and of course, football coaching! We’re trying to provide them with pathways towards paid opportunities, to raise levels of aspirations and to increase wellbeing overall.
We’ve demonstrated success in each of those areas, too: we have staff working within the Community Trust who came through our workshops, gaining qualifications for part time work - and now they're full-time. We have participants who have moved into stewarding and HR roles too – we want to ensure that we're providing careers pathways not only into the club and Trust but also giving young people the confidence to go elsewhere and build their own capacities and careers within local communities.
We’ve got a great success story developing this season on the footballing opportunities front too, with a participant we coached in the Community Trust under-8s team many years ago now on the brink of the first team squad. Make a note of the name – goalkeeper Lucas Thomas!
Our aim is to ensure that everybody, no matter their age or ability or gender, has an opportunity to engage with our programmes. Something we do now is to unlock and open as many different facilities as we possibly can, so young people have free access and are able to play sport and football without the usual barriers of lack of available space and fees. We can then engage with them through football coaches, bring in youth workers and promote opportunities for education and qualifications.
It works, too. What we find is them asking is how do we is how do we become like you? How do I become a football coach? How do I become a youth worker? Well, if you get onto these facilities we’ll do what we can as a Community Trust and football club to provide you with the skills and resources to do just that.
What about opportunities for girls?
We’re 100 per cent dedicated to offering equal opportunities, with a clear focus on women and girls football, and formal EDI and safeguarding policies and Key Performance Indicators to ensure we have a true representation of female coaches, youth workers and staff within the trust. This encourages girls and women to continue to engage with us and feel comfortable in doing so. We have an over-16s girls football programme over at the Cedars in Leighton Buzzard and we're just about to launch our talent identification programme for girls from five all the way up to 16. There’s a huge focus on that this season, building on the success of the Lionesses.
Has anything changed since you left and came back?
One significant change is that the Community Trust now operates within the football club’s headquarters, as part of a reshaped alignment of club and Trust. This is helping us hugely improve what we’re doing across areas such as finance, HR, marketing and communications and media by working with the club’s specialist teams. We share the same values and goals, of course.
Personally, I’m looking to apply the business development skills, insights and networks I gained throughout my career to improving processes and opening up new funding opportunities and partnerships so we can achieve more, again with the help of the club and its commercial and operational departments.
Both the club’s new Head of Commercial, Ben Tunnell, and Chief Revenue Officer, Ben Kensell, previously worked at Norwich, whose Community Foundation are doing great work in their geographic areas. We're looking forward to collaborating with such experienced members of the club to enhance our services and develop those new business partnerships and funding opportunities. The club are enormously supportive and we’re looking forward to a positive future for the trust and the communities we serve.
We had a brilliant example of what this alignment can achieve just a week or so ago, with us and the club hosting an event at The Brache involving a match between a young Trust team and the Pakistan Street Children team, organised with Street Child United and Muslim Hands.
Street Child United shines a spotlight on children living in street situations around the world, the adversities they face and the fundamental rights they lack – their mission is to change that and transform lives through the power of sport. Giving everyone an opportunity. So we’re absolutely in tune with that. We worked alongside the Supporters’ Trust on this, too, and it has opened new gateways into our local communities. Look out for more news in coming months!
We’re also looking to incorporate Trust facilities at Power Court – more about that next time, too.
What other initiatives are the Community Trust involved in?
Lots! Right now for instance, we’re delivering Holiday Camps for young people all over Luton including not only football training but also free hot meals and snacks to ensure that those who are in need are fed through the club and the Trust. Whenever young people are with us or under our services, that’s a commitment. We work closely with Active Luton and Luton Foodbank too – including our annual Christmas meals for the homeless programme.
This all sounds fantastic. How can we, as supporters, help you and the Community Trust?
If you’re an individual, or group, looking to engage with our work, drop me an email at daniel.douglas@lutontown.co.uk and if you’re a business, please talk to us about a partnership, or funding. We’re always eager to engage with every part of our town, area and club communities. We’re all Luton – and proud of it!
Thank you Daniel – the Community Trust are doing so much amazing and inspirational work and we’ll certainly be coming back with updates in a second part in programme later in the season.
