Project
Positive Futures (East Midlands)
Grant amount
£175,000
project summary
Positive Futures is a social inclusion project that uses sport as an engagement tool to improve the aspirations of young people and reduce anti social behaviour.
what was the grant spent on?
The grant has been spent on the salaries of the Positive Futures coordinator, part time Youth Worker and our Apprentice. In addition to these salaries we have a diverse range of programmes that we deliver in the community, the programme includes Football coaching and tournaments, basketball, boxing, and kwik cricket. We have also diversified into non mainstream activities such as dodge ball and ultimate Frisbee.
In conjunction with our main delivery we have a girls only programme that includes sessions of boxercise, jewellery making, clothing design, cake decorating, a dance group that has performed county wide. The Positive Futures Youth Worker delivers health and wellbeing sessions including, alcohol and tobacco awareness, healthy eating, the cost of living as well as providing our cohort with 11mentoring in school for half a day per week.
What are the long term benefits of the project on the community?
There are many long term benefits in the locality, the main one being to the young people. We are giving the young people that we work with of Cotgrave more ambition and desire to expand their horizons and become more of a positive aspect of their community and be better role models to the younger ages of the locality.
We work tirelessly to ensure that they attend school and that they are working to their full potential. We have completed our first community pride project; this project was delivered by the young people with a range of professional partners. The project was to paint the railings on the inside of the local children’s play area, the project was a huge success and has been praised by the town council as bringing the park to life. We are aiming to deliver this project annually and have a long term effect not only on the environment
but to show the older generations of Cotgrave that their young people are engaging in positive activities and are giving back their time to enhance their locality.
We are actively working with all main service providers in the locality and in fact they all sit on the programmes management group. Members of this group include police, school, youth services, community safety, Rushcliffe borough council sports development. Nottinghamshire F.A, Cotgrave town council. This group helps to guide the project as well as having all the key partners to share info relating to the locality so that we are proactive to the needs of the young people and to ensure that we are working along side all other services efficiently.
Tell us about the positive affect on individuals
We have been instrumental in ensuring that two of the young people that we work with were not permanently excluded from school. They both now attend a college placement on vocational courses. We also have statistics to prove that while in school the majority of the young people that we worked with made improvements in behaviour and attendance.
quotes
Name: Catherine Sowter
Position: Comunity Safety
“I work on a project in Cotgrave that focuses on working in partnership to help reduce the levels of crime and anti social behaviour. Having mark and his team in the area delivering the positive futures programme is making the task a lot easier. Since the programme began last year there has been a significant reduction in the levels of youth crime in the area as well as a huge increase in the amount of positive activities for young people to participate in. the positive futures programme is developing some excellent partnership work and is providing a visible improvement to the quality of life for all the community.”
Name: Brett, 15
Position: Participant
"I would be playing on my Xbox, watching TV or hanging out with my mates at the precinct getting into bother."
