Go Beyond Sport Responds To UK Riots

In response to the recent scenes of violence and unrest in the UK, global sport and development initiative Beyond Sport is issuing a rallying call to garner support for a raft of community projects that use sport to address problems such as youth violence, crime and anti-social behaviour.

The ‘Go Beyond Sport’ awareness campaign initially highlights five UK-based projects whose activities engage directly with the disenfranchised youth who were at the heart of the riots and looting that struck the country last week.

Beyond Sport has also set up a fundraising page on the JustGiving donation website allowing people to pledge money as way of a support for these initiatives – http://www.justgiving.com/teams/gobeyondsport.

•    Fight For Peace (North Woolwich)
Uses a prevention and rehabilitation model to confront the problem of child and youth participation in crime, gangs and violence within disadvantaged communities by focusing on boxing and martial arts combined with education and personal development.

•    Greenhouse (Communities throughout London)?Empowers young people in London’s disadvantaged communities to realise their potential through high quality, intensive sport and dance programmes delivered by inspirational coaches before and after school and on school holidays, year-round?.

•    StreetGames (Communities throughout the UK)
Utilises the charity’s ‘doorstep sport’ philosophy to make sport accessible to young people and in doing so has reduced incidents of crime and anti-social behaviour in areas where the projects operate; brought young people from different communities together; improved community health levels; and provided opportunities for employment.

•    Street League (Communities throughout the UK)
Utilises participants’ enthusiasm for football – all of whom come from a range of disadvantaged backgrounds such as homelessness, offending and drug/alcohol problems – to provide an interrelated course that covers sessions on motivation, psychology, self-belief, money management, and, most importantly, job-skill sessions such as CV writing and interview techniques.

•    Tottenham Hotspur Foundation (Haringey, Enfield, Waltham Forest, Barnet, Epping Forest and Harlow)?Delivers free activities for over 1,500 young people every week to not only improve their sports skills, but also to help them build their self-esteem, develop positive attitudes, and attain greater opportunities in education and employment, steering them away from potential unemployment and involvement in anti-social behaviour.

These projects, which were chosen as standout programmes that have entered the annual Beyond Sport Awards during the last three years since its inception, are proof on the ground that sport has the power to reach children and young adults – to educate them and provide them with positive life-skills and opportunities.

Each of these initiatives has shown that sport can be used as a uniting element between conflicting groups, and can bind warring sides together to recognise their differences.

You can follow the Go Beyond Sport campaign on Twitter via @BeyondSport or by searching under the #gobeyondsport hash tag or on the Go Beyond Sport fan page on Facebook.

Beyond Sport supports and celebrates hundreds of projects like these worldwide, and dozens here in the UK, working to make the young population an anti-violent, productive group.

Beyond Sport is a global organisation that promotes, develops and supports the use of sport to create positive social change. The third annual Beyond Sport Summit is taking place in Cape Town from 5th to 8th December.

Beyond Sport is partnered with Barclays Spaces for Sports, TIME International and UNICEF.