Working with football clubs

We have been working with football clubs in the UK from the very beginning.  The Football in the Community schemes at QPR, Hull City and Brighton and Hove Albion have contributed an incredible amount of time and effort into making Coaching for Hope what it is today, from coach participation to writing a training manual.  As our work has expanded to reach more people, we've built fantastic new partnerships with Tottenham Hotspur and Everton.  Through their work with Coaching for Hope, these football clubs have a hugely positive impact on people's lives in West and Southern Africa.  

We work with coaches from professional Football in the Community schemes who have great experience in delivering football education and social inclusion messages to young people in their own communities, and this is exactly what we aim to do in Africa.

Not in Employment, Education or Training

We are working in partnership with Hull City football club to roll out our curriculum in the UK as well as in Africa. The Goals Without Goalposts football manual combines football coach education with social messages for youth workers supportung young people in disadvantaged communities.

The NEETS (Not in Employment, Education or Training) project in Hull works with young people aged 16-19 who are not in formal education or training. The goal is for them to learn key skills in literacy and numeracy, but more importantly to enhance their self esteem and confidence. The scheme's vision is to act as a route back into formal education or training. Twenty young people have already participated in this community initiative, which lasts about 20 weeks. They have learned a wide range of skills from emergency first aid and FA level one courses, to maths and literacy. The most important element of the NEETS project is that they provide a safe and unthreatening environment for young people to learn in.

This project is a great fit for us as we aim to work with the same target groups, using the same methodology. We believe that young people should be given every opportunity to learn, and sport breaks down barriers and introduces common ground between people who may otherwise not be able to find it. Our course content is all based on football coaching and communication skills, and used with the football/substance abuse ‘crossover’ sessions provides a great resource for these vital social messages to be passed to young people.

A Boost for Young People in Hull

The Boost Project, formerly known as Re-engage, works with young people aged 14-16 in Hull and East Riding who are at risk of being excluded from mainstream education and who come from disadvantaged backgrounds.

The project uses sport to positively influence and educate young people, inspiring them through powerful and positive partnerships. Participants are given the opportunity through a specially designed curriculum to learn and put into practice skills as a Sport’s Leader. They develop key skills in areas such as Communication and Working with Others.

The project staff are specialists in their respective fields and positive role models for the young people. They reinforce positive messages and build the participants' self esteem and confidence.

The project works with local secondary schools and partners including HM Prison Hull, Humberside Police Armed Response Unit, Casper Sexual Health Team, Connexions Hull and Hull City AFC.

The Boost Project has delivered three Coaching for Hope programmes to over 120 young people in the UK, focusing mainly on alcohol and drugs awareness

 

Participants in the Boost Project with police gun and knife crime specialists in Hull.

Playing for Success

We are working with the successful education project Playing for Success which is based at Hull’s KC Stadium and Hull KR Stadium, Craven Park. Together we are working on education through interactive learning. Our focus is to add an international development module to the Playing for Success schedule, to reduce and remove negative attitudes to Africa.  We have so far piloted this module with great success and plan to take this to other centres around the region and then extend it to other parts of the UK.  

Rhys Jones Memorial Trust

We have linked with the Rhys Jones Memorial Trust to pass their message on to as many young people as possible - Join a team not a gang.  With the funding from the Rhys Jones Memorial Trust we are working with young people in Cape Town to make them aware of the dangers of substance abuse.

 

To find out more about Coaching for Hope's activities in the UK, please contact our UK Programme Manager, Mike Richardson at michael.richardson@coachingforhope.org