EUKN - European Urban Knowledge Network - Positive Futures – at-risk youth develop a positive outlook through sports and culture

Positive Futures – at-risk youth develop a positive outlook through sports and culture – UK

Introduction

Positive Futures is a national sports and activity based social inclusion programme in the United Kingdom (UK). The programme was launched in 2000. It is funded by the Home Office Crime and Drug Strategy Directorate and managed by Crime Concern. Positive Futures supports young people living in some of the most socially and economically deprived communities in the country by helping them to find routes back into education, volunteering and employment. Positive Futures differs from other sports development programmes by positioning itself as a ‘relationship strategy’. It seeks to engage with young people through an ability to teach or help them learn something they think is worthwhile. Positive Futures results underline the validity of the approach.

Description

Positive Futures wants to ‘have a positive influence on participants’ drug use, physical activity and offending behaviour by widening horizons and access to lifestyle, educational and employment opportunities within a supportive and culturally familiar environment’.

The approach is described as a ‘relationship strategy’ which seeks to engage with young people through an ability to teach or help them learn something they think is worthwhile. Positive Futures works in neighbourhoods identified as amongst the twenty per cent most deprived in the country. It seeks to use sport and other activities as a basis for establishing relationships with young people who are at risk of becoming alienated from society and ‘authority’ figures. Central to this approach is a commitment to a flexible, organic local development strategy and the role of community workers in establishing a platform of trust. Working from this position the intention is that young people will talk to responsible adults about issues affecting their lives.

The programme is currently operating through over 120 local projects across England and Wales, 24 of which are funded through the UK Football Foundation
Projects run in each of the thirty worst affected areas of drug-related crime in the country
Projects are delivered locally by a range of agencies including local authorities, charities, sports clubs and crime reduction agencies

Approach

The project targets marginalised youngsters aged 10–19, particularly targeting those living in deprived neighbourhoods. Delivered through over 120 local partnership projects, Positive Futures provides participants with access to a wide range of sporting activities including football, BMXing, climbing, canoeing and abseiling. The programme also incorporates substance misuse interventions through workshops, individual mentoring and advisory literature. Youngsters can access the programme through self-referral and through referrals made by statutory and voluntary agencies, word of mouth and outreach workers.

Results

In October 2004, the results for the 2000-2004 period became available. Amongst the results are the following:

approximately 70,000 young people were involved in regular project activities
Positive Futures has proven successful in creating strong local networks of partners
42 per cent of project partners believe that the project has helped to reduce substance misuse levels
the availability of sporting activities increased as the project progressed
the majority of project partners believed that anti social behaviour and local crime rates have fallen as a result of Positive Futures

Recently, the publication “Know the Score: Learning from the Positive Futures Case Study Research Project” became available. It provides clear indicators of the pluses and minuses of the Positive Futures project.

Contact info

Home Office, United Kingdom
Positive Futures Team, tel. +44 20 7035 0622

Project start date

01/01/2000

Links

Visit the Positive Futures website Visit the Crime Concern website Read the Positive Futures 2004 Interim Report on the EUKN website

Download “Know the Score: Learning from the Positive Futures Case Study Research Project” (PDF, Eng, 940 KB)

Document type

case

Themes

Urban Policy > Social inclusion & integration > Integration of social groups

Keywords

Young people