A new street football project will be launched on Friday (31 Oct) in Bury St Edmunds thanks to a new partnership between Suffolk Positive Futures, Anglia Community Leisure’s Street Sports Project and Abbeycroft Leisure.
The ‘street football’ project aims to offer young people aged 12-19 the opportunity to turn up and play football for free on the astro-turf at Bury St Edmunds Leisure Centre. Coaches and volunteers from both Suffolk Positive Futures and the Street Sports project will be there every Friday between 7.30pm- and 9pm to deliver coaching to the young people as well as organising small matches and tournaments.
The project will be launched with three community sessions taking place during the October half term at Moreton Hall Youth Centre, Howard Playing Field and Hardwick Heath and there are plans to take the project back out into the community during future school holidays.
The project is part funded by The Suffolk Community Foundation, one of 48 Community Foundations in the UK, via the Safer Suffolk Fund, which was set up to support the work of voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations that are delivering services that help make Suffolk a safer place to live, work, travel and invest in.
The project is being delivered as a partnership between Suffolk Positive Futures, Abbeycroft Leisure and Anglia Community Leisure’s Street Sports Project. Suffolk Positive Futures is a youth crime prevention and reduction service aiming to empower young people to become positive role models and responsible citizens and is managed by Catch22, a social business, which has more than 200 years’ experience of providing services that help people turn their lives around.
Paul Knight, Suffolk Positive Futures Manager said:
“We are delighted to be able to offer this project again for young people of Bury St Edmunds. We are hopeful that the project can remain a constant fixture on a Friday night in the town. We would like to acknowledge the Suffolk Community Foundation, The Suffolk PCC and Abbeycroft Leisure for all their contributions to the project.”
Suffolk Positive Futures receives support from the Suffolk Police and Crime Commissioner Tim Passmore to support him to achieve the aims set in his ‘police and crime plan’ for Suffolk.
Tim Passmore said: “Suffolk Positive Futures’ work with vulnerable young people, to help divert them away from the criminal justice system, is invaluable and absolutely key to my Police and Crime Plan for Suffolk.
“The project offers young people a positive alternative to crime and violence, giving them positive role models and an opportunity to gain qualifications. It is a chance to set them on the right path to be good citizens and make a positive contribution to Suffolk.
“I have spent some time seeing first-hand the work of the project and am very impressed with the leaders and the work they are doing. I am delighted to support the project and have committed £85k from my Community Safety Fund to enable them to continue this excellent work and extend it across the whole county.”
Abbeycroft Leisure hopes that the project will encourage more youngsters into sport and activity.
Warren Smyth, CEO of Abbeycroft Leisure and Anglia Community Leisure, said: “Abbeycroft and Anglia Community Leisure are really pleased to be working with Suffolk Positive Futures to develop programmes that provide opportunities for young people in the area. Both organisations have a track record of delivering youth initiatives and this project with enhance that reputation further.”
The project is also being supported by Anglia Community Leisure’s Street Sports Project a free youth sports programme running across Forest Heath. For the last three years Street Sports has had more than 18,0000 attendances from youngsters in Forest Heath area, Street Sports provides young people with a fun and safe environment to meet and play sport to keep them engaged and off the streets. The project has successfully supported Suffolk Police in reducing anti-social behaviour in the district and helped some of our most deprived young people.
Keiran Williams, Anglia Community Leisure’s Sport & Physical Activity Development Officer, said:
“Street Sports has been fantastically successful in Forest Heath over the last 5 years, we are extremely excited about working with Suffolk Positive Futures launching this project in Bury St Edmunds.”
