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HELPING TO CREATE MORE COHESIVE COMMUNITIES
SOME SPORTING CASE STUDIES
Bangladesh Community Development (BCD) Part-time Sports Development officer
ACDF funding of £124,814 over five years
BCD supports the Bangladesh community by running projects that offer educational support to students of all ages and raise awareness of the need to support children's education among Bangladeshi and other Asian parents. It provides diversional recreational activities for young people designed to combat anti-social behaviour such as drug misuse and vandalism. These include sports activities, cricket and football, and computer skills. Vocational and employment related training courses and career development courses. These courses, run by BCD provide Bangadeshis with the confidence to integrate and progress in all areas of their lives.
This project funds a part time (0.5 full time equivalent) sports development officer whose task is to work with Bangladeshi males of all ages, working with two other officers employed to work with women and girls so that they too can derive benefit from the project.
The project's focus is to:
· Encourage and motivate young men and boys to join in a range of sporting activities including team sports which will develop leadership skills. · Organise the venues and equipment for these activities. · Identify adult individuals and to arrange coaching accreditation for them. · Work with a core of such individuals so that they in turn will recruit and run clubs and teams.
The BCD Sports Project is designed to engage the community, building capacity for participation in sport at all levels. It aims to increase confidence and self esteem, improve fitness and health, improve employment opportunities and lead to greater integration with the wider community. It ensures that Sporting Activities are available, accessible and affordable to all sectors of the community, including children, young adults, unemployed and older men and women and provides opportunities for people to achieve their potential in sport, leadership skills, team work, training, coaching, mentoring, first aid, etc. as well as building close links with statutory and voluntary agencies, schools and colleges in order to provide the widest sporting and training opportunities.
Hutson Street Community Association Full-time Community Development Worker ACDF funding of £87,070 for five years from 2002
The Hutson Street Community Association is a community development project working in the Little Horton area of Bradford. The Management Committee is largely made up of local people, and Hutson Street has a good track record of bringing together people from different backgrounds including the African Caribbean and Asian Communities.
Over the last 13 years the Association have developed a variety of centre based activities, including several health initiatives e.g. Fresh Fruit and Vegetables Stall, World Cuisine and Children's Health Information Work.
Hutson Street chairs the Little Horton Healthy Living Network Steering Group, who hope to secure major "Healthy Living Centre" funding from the New Opportunities Fund. In terms of sport, since 2000 they have managed a football fund and in Easter/Summer 2001 delivered sports activities for 13 - 17 yr. olds.
The Community Sports Worker is employed to engage people in the Little Horton/West Bowling area in sport/active recreation. This involves community capacity building, including training people in the local community to lead/deliver activities in their neighbourhood. The project targets people in ethnic minority communities, girls and women, people on low incomes and young people. It also builds on ongoing sports initiatives in the area by improving coordination and open up local facilities to local people, linking with the new School Sports Coordinators and art/indoor space at Newby School.
Little Horton Ward is the top 10% of the most deprived wards according to 2004 DETR statistics. The area also has a large ethnic minority population and a high proportion of people who could be described as socially excluded. The need for this project has been established through the Sports Action Zone/New Deal for Communities Consultation. It also builds on successful sports initiatives in the area over the last 5 years. The project clearly links into the New Deal for Communities ten year regeneration programme by supporting several of their stated outcomes including, increased participation in community activities, reduced racial disadvantage, reduced social exclusion and improved diet and lifestyle.
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Full Circle - St Paul's Youth and Family Project ACDF funding of £55,718 for 4 years from 2002
The Full Circle project have employed a youth sports worker to engage young people and deliver a variety of high quality sports programmes that respond to their need. The aim is to target young people, from ethnic minority backgrounds, aged 10 - 17 years in the St Paul's area - an area of high deprivation, crime and drug dependency. A key component is to increase marginalized young people's participation in sport at all levels, enhancing their confidence, skills, self-esteem, teamwork, sense of inclusion and achievement and to forge links with other local sports and health services
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St Lukes Youth Project Three years ACDF funding from 2002, totalling £32,129
Holbeck and Beeston Hill is an inner city area with a
population of around 15,000 people.
Most of the residents are white, but there is substantial Asian
community with 28% of the population from non-white ethnic groups. St Luke's Youth Project is situated directly
in between both communities. It
provides the following services to young people: · a Drop in/Information Centre designed to educate young people in avoiding potentially damaging situations. The centre also doubles as a community resource. · close links with local high and primary schools in lunchtime sessions, assemblies and PSHE lessons. · advice to young people on issues of sexual health and related matters.
The social and racial divide is based on mistrust and a lack of education on both sides with tension common between both groups. St Luke's Youth Project have, over the last 18 months been at the forefront in providing a bridge in the community. They have made inroads by working directly in both communities and ensuring ethnic representation on our Management Committee. St Luke's Youth Project is the only Voluntary Sector project in the area that caters for all issues that young people may experience, employing a holistic approach to our work. One of their partners, The Football Community Link Project, based in Beeston Park, provides football opportunities to young people and the project was designed to complement this work.
The Sport Development Programme is designed to build confidence and link young people into their own community by running a series of Community Sport Leader Courses in the area. The project was intended to reach young people who are at risk of leaving school with little or no prospects of employment aiming to engage sporting participation from within the local Asian Community, through integration and mixed cultural teamwork. It provides inclusive sport training opportunities through positive advertising and deliberate promotion of multicultural sporting events. The aim is to build a bridge between the two communities, linking new and existing sport programmes, giving two clearly defined target areas
Initially lunchtime and after-school football sessions were provided within the schools, particularly Matthew Murray High school, developing exposure to community sport. From this, teams have been built to participate in local weekend 5 a side tournaments provided by project partners. This has empowered the young people to participate in JSLA/CSLA courses, also run by St Luke's Youth Project. The projects relational work has enabled its workers to identify needs and talents and enable them to steer young people into utilising services not previously accessed.
The project worker funded by Sport England has built on existing links, in both sections of the community, providing sport activities not previously available due to lack of manpower. The worker has worked closely with all the local agencies to ensure that each young person receives the necessary ongoing care and support. All available facilities in the area have been used, working closely with other sporting projects; in particular NACRO, South Leeds Stadium, Old Cockburn Youth Facility, Leeds United and the schools with whom the project already had already have strong links
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CAMDEN, TOWER HAMLETS, AND HACKNEY,
The Jubilee Centre ACDF funding of £90,000 for three years from 2002
The Jubilee Outdoor Education Centre is the only licensed provider of Outdoor Educational activities in the Central London Connexions area (comprising the seven inner London Boroughs). Their core activities include: kayaking/canoeing on the Regents canal, climbing/abseiling on our indoor climbing wall, and mountain biking to areas such as Epping Forest. They also provide a large number of residential experiences both onsite and around the UK and Europe.
The Centre is managed by a voluntary Management Committee, is Charity based and has a staff team of 4 full-time, 8 part-time, 8 core instructors and 4 volunteers. The ACDF funding was used to recruit 48 young people from predominately ethnic minority communities in and around the London Borough of Camden to be trained and qualified as Outdoor Instructors, to be peer motivators and role models for other up and coming young people from local multi-ethnic communities. The training course was for a one year duration and the recruits worked with the project full time over a three year period based both in London and Wales (16 young people on each course).
The Centre worked in partnership with a number of other agencies most notably South Camden Community School, Central Camden Community Umbrella Youth Initiative (single regeneration scheme), Camden Youth and Connnexions Summer University, Pirate Club and Llangollen Youth Hostel. This multi-agency approach has supported the need for this unique type of provision and activities that the Jubilee offers around Outdoor Education.
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