PROJECT
Sporteducate
FUNDING
Up to £9,000 per year each for 33 sports clubs to provide educational provision or employment support over three years, funded by Deutsche Bank
BACKGROUND
In 2013, Deutsche Bank sought out a charity to provide targeted educational interventions to young Londoners at risk of disengagement to be funded through its Born to Be programme. It joined forces with charity Sported and the Sporteducate scheme was born, piloted from September 2013 in five London sports clubs. There are now 33 participating clubs and the scheme has reached 1,669 young people.
ACTION
Sporteducate aims to improve "five As" - attitude to learning; attendance at school, college, training or work; academic achievement; aspirations; and aptitude and employment.
Sports clubs applying to participate outline how they would spend a grant of up to £9,000 to achieve one or more of these aims, which could include employing tutors to deliver homework clubs, employability workshops or one-to-one tuition.
Each club identifies 25 young people who regularly attend that club leaders and coaches believe will benefit the most. "Clubs and young people already have a relationship and this programme happens in environments they're comfortable in, with people they're comfortable with," explains programme manager Sanaa Qureshi.
The clubs decide how to combine sporting activities with educational and employability sessions. One example is the charity Football Beyond Borders' after-school literacy club. Participants discuss books about footballers, which has improved verbal skills and saved some participants from exclusion, according to Qureshi: "They have quite formal debates about which footballer is better, employing all the techniques you'd learn to argue a point effectively."
OUTCOME
Of 1,057 participants at the end of Sporteducate's second year, 97 per cent remained in education, employment or training, according to Sporteducate figures.
An evaluation by EdComs Research, based on surveys of participants and club leaders between March 2014 and March 2016, shows the scheme helped boost participants' confidence. A survey of 240 young people found 79 per cent said the scheme helped them stay out of trouble while 74 per cent said it helped them perform better at school.
