Case studies
Back to previous pagePositive Futures in Braintree
Braintree Leisure Centre is a smart, clean, modern kind of sports facility. A long green drape of canvas netting divides its large, brightly-lit sports hall in two.On one side Ray Hoefft is encouraging 10 young boys and girls in a game of five-a-side football. On the other, Allen Kittles is guiding half a dozen teenage girls through some simple football skills exercises – control, dribbling and passing between cones.
It’s a scene familiar to anyone involved in football coaching with young people. But there’s a difference here. Away at the end of the hall, Karen Thorburn is sitting on a wooden bench consoling a distraught-looking teenager. She talks to her for 10 or 15 minutes before the young girl stops crying and joins in the game.
It’s not that the she’s been hurt in action, injured by some wayward pass or clumsy boot. This girl just needs support, the kind of help most kids get from their parents, or teachers. For her, as for many of the young people here, coming to football practice is more than just a chance to run around, it’s a place to bring the frustrations piled up during the rest of their unsettled lives.
Karen is a volunteer with Braintree Community Sports project, one of eight Positive Futures projects funded by the Football Foundation and run by the Youth Activities Unit of the crime reduction charity Nacro, part of its National Football Programme. Eliot Caton, the project co-ordinator, is surveying the scene from the sports hall balcony.
"Just another day at the office," he comments. "The thing is, for a lot of these young people we’re the only outside social contact they have, so they bring us a lot of their problems. Yes, we’re lucky to have use of this place to do the coaching, but these youngsters are all into it anyway. If we’ve got a ball, a couple of cones and some space they’d be here."
These 16 young people, aged between seven and 15, come to the project twice a week for some football coaching, a bit of a game and a chance to let off steam. Some play in the projects under 13s Sunday league side; some have serious talent; others are less gifted but keen nonetheless. All are welcome.
"The project is all about being inclusive," says Eliot. "We say to them, ‘We don’t care how good you are, you can be part of this, and you will not be left out if you cannot afford to be involved, you don’t have to pay.‘ Getting them involved is what counts."
Before the sessions begin, Ray and Karen scurry around the district in the project’s mini-bus picking up gaggles of youths from estates and streets known in the Essex town for crime, drugs and anti-social behaviour. A couple come from a women’s refuge, and many bring with them what Eliot describes as "a table full of issues".
"The power of sport is about the power of engagement, it’s about getting somebody to keep coming back week in week out," he says. "But this is not just about participation. We’re a safe haven for them, so they don’t have to hang about on the streets. It’s a social event focused around football, and that means we can use it to begin to address the problems some of these young people have."
The project was started in 1998 to tackle rising levels of youth crime and nuisance, identified by a community safety audit in some parts of the town. Originally funded by the Department of Health’s Opportunities for Volunteering Scheme and Braintree District Council, it is now into its second year of a five year funding package from the Football Foundation.
Based in the council offices, the project began by establishing football coaching sessions on three estates, providing young people with healthy activity and a way to build self-esteem, teamwork skills and positive relationships with adults. Matches were organised and tournaments held, giving the youngsters a sense of belonging and achievement. On one estate police reported that incidences of criminal damage dropped by more than two-thirds within one month of the club starting.
Eliot became co-ordinator nearly two and half years ago and, until recently, was the only member of staff. "When I took over the project I was very conscious of the need to make it sustainable," he says. "This is really a community resource, so it needs to be ‘owned’ by the community."
He set about identifying and training local adults as volunteers, empowering people like Karen and Ray to organise and lead sessions themselves. He went to the local FE College and offered work placements to students taking NVQ leisure studies courses. "Coming from the same area and backgrounds, they were already tuned in to the kind of problems these young people are grappling with," says Eliot.
The project organised and paid for them to take the FA’s junior team managers’ award and a series of courses on drug and alcohol awareness, child protection, first aid, and health and safety. "The first challenge for me was to give the volunteers ownership of the project, to say, ‘This is your work’," says Eliot. "It’s difficult to coach at the best of times, but when you are working with young people with behaviour problems, often you are just trying to keep the sessions under control. In the past I felt as though the handcuffs were on and I wasn’t able to address the underlying issues."
Now the project has 15 regular volunteers and runs sessions every day except Friday, providing coaching and support for anywhere between 60 and 130 young people a week. "I don’t need to go to any sessions now," says Eliot. "I do, but they’re run by the volunteers. They’re the ones who have built up the relationships with the young people and, through them, a lot of the issues are coming out."
By using volunteers, Eliot’s has been able to spend more time building relationships with partner agencies – local police, social services, the youth offending team, probation services, young people’s drug and alcohol agencies, domestic violence panels, needle exchanges, and so on. The aim, he says, is to begin to filter their professional expertise into the sessions in a way that’s accepted by the kids.
With one group, for example, he broke down some of the suspicions between local police and young people by inviting officers to play in their five-a-side teams. A number of the young people were on probation or already in the youth offending system, and there was "some initial minor resistance". But by putting them all in the same kit, and up against the same opposition, they had to think of themselves as a team.
Now the police are regularly involved in Monday night coaching sessions, while the youth service and local drug and alcohol team take part in the Wednesday evening group. In another case, Eliot’s relationship with one young man’s probation officer, and Karen’s character reference in court, helped keep him out of prison so he could continue making progress through his involvement in the scheme.
"It comes from getting to know the young people, and having positive volunteers who want to contribute to change in their community. It’s such a powerful resource," says Eliot. "Now I’m thinking about how we can become a more structured part of the rehabilitation process, so we can help with reparation within the community."
He wants "more visibility" from agencies, to get them to be more active in building relationships with young people. "The power of football is that it enables people to meet through a common medium," he says. "If a police officer has got a few skills, if he can stick the ball in the top corner, that gives him amazing credibility. It is about finding a language that allows you to communicate."
Eliot has used money from the Communities Against Drugs Fund to employ a co-worker, Brendan Walshe, who will give the project "a more structured approach to the drug and alcohol issues and even allow us to further develop the educational side to the sessions". "We are in a position now to begin to focus on those hard core issues that are really having an impact on the lives of these youngsters," he says.
The project’s also expanding geographically, into some of the rural areas around the town. And as it engages more volunteers with different experiences (a member of the Great Britain wheelchair basketball team is one of them!) it will provide a wider range of activities. Basketball coaching sessions have already begun, and athletics sessions are planned for 2003.
Eliot has no doubt it’s all needed. "I remember, when I started, thinking, ‘One hour a week? Does it really make a difference?’ But for many of them it is the focal point of their week and gives them something to look forward to."
Not to mention somewhere to bring the challenges they face in their lives. Back at the Tabor centre, Karen’s little chat with the upset teenager has revealed the cause of her distress – exam pressure at school and a mother who’s "not really interested". "Can’t we get her some revision books, or something?" asks Karen. "Of course," says Eliot. "I’ll have a word with the education department. Tell her we’ll sort something out."
Just another day at the office, as he says.
Factfile
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Area: Braintree, Essex
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Lead agency: Braintree Community Sports project, Nacro
Funding: £112,000 over five years from the Football Foundation; plus £10,000 per year from Braintree District Council, and funding from Communities Against Drugs -
Key partners: Braintree District Council
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Other agencies involved: drug reference group, police, social services, youth service, youth offending team, drug and alcohol project, Braintree Leisure Centre, probation service
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Activities offered: mainly football, basketball, athletics
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What next: work more closely with local drug and youth offending services, and develop closer relationships with schools; develop more opportunities and structured career paths for volunteers; start a street football league in Braintree
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Top tip: work with the community and develop partnerships with local agencies; most of all be passionate about what you do
