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Famed for its work with youngsters across the South East, and with its Sparrows Lane office mantelpiece groaning under the weight of numerous awards, Charlton's community work took a major step in its redevelopment in August 2007.

An initiative that began when the Addicks returned to The Valley in 1992 with just one member of staff, a bag of footballs and a telephone, had grown into an organisation that employed hundreds of football coaches and came into contact with thousands of youngsters on a weekly basis.

But the Charlton community scheme under the Professional Footballers' Association Football in the Community programme was no more: the project is now known as Charlton Community Scheme Solutions and is run by the Charlton Community Trust.

"Over the 15 years since the club returned to The Valley, Jason Morgan and the community scheme team did some wonderful work," said trust chief executive Steve Waggott.

"We wanted to bring all the community initiatives undertaken by Charlton under one arm, and that led to the development of the trust, which can take on projects and apply for funding that the football club itself can't.

"The wider picture is that not only are we using the power of football, and other sports, to target, educate and help hard-to-reach people through a huge number of programmes, we are also taking the name of Charlton to its community.”

Waggott added: "The advent of the trust means we will be able to even more effectively deliver a strategy to ensure that all our community work is geared towards the four main government targets around reducing crime, improving health, raising educational attainment and increasing pathways to employment."

In recent years, there has been a dramatic increase in staffing, income generation and Charlton's reach across the South East, with a huge amount of projects and programmes being delivered in Greenwich, Bexley and Kent.

And since 2002, the trust has also expanded its operation overseas, with officers carrying out pioneering work in deprived communities in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban in South Africa, and, from 2008, Kingston in Jamaica.

Indeed, the success of these initiatives has been illustrated by numerous awards, such as the three prestigious Business in the Community accolades that recognised Charlton's groundbreaking social inclusion work in Kent in particular in summer 2007, and the best community initiative at the 2008 Football League Awards.

Among the trust's community programmes are: estates sessions, the Charlton Challenge award scheme, Toddler Soccer, literacy and numeracy courses, fun football courses, beach football, curriculum coaching, after-school coaching and much more.

Youngsters who show promise on football courses can be invited to train at the trust's advanced centres (set up by former Charlton first-team coach Les Reed in the 1990s), when Addicks scouts will visit to run the rule over local talent. More than a third of the club's academy ranks were first spotted on community courses, and, in 2007, Harry Arter and Grant Basey became the first players to progress from local community courses to make their debut for the Charlton first team.

The trust also runs courses enabling people to gain their first coaching qualifications, and many youngsters who have started out on estate or football courses have progressed to gain a coaching certificate and then employment with Charlton Community Scheme Solutions, becoming role models to their peers in the process.

What's more, from summer 2007, the trust also oversees the Charlton women's set-up, which competes in the Premier League, plus the centre of excellence and academy departments.

The community scheme team also delivers free roadshows and community events throughout the summer across Greenwich, Bexley, Kent and Bromley.

Said Waggott: "All of our efforts are geared towards becoming a community-orientated organisation.

"It's all part of developing a sustainable business case in which all our community activities ultimately lead to the expansion of the Charlton brand and the supporter base of the football club.

"This is now widely known as 'return on social investment', and many other well known brands, such as Marks & Spencer and EDF Energy, are developing their business strategy around this philosophy.

"Corporate social responsibility is increasingly becoming important, and we ahead of the game in the football sector and should be able to capitalise on our community investment by increasing our commercial return over the coming years."

Fans can read the latest community news here.

Fans can read the latest women's set-up news here.

Fans can see all of the club's overseas initiatives and partnerships here.

The Charlton Community Trust website is here.