GOALS aims to tackle core issues that have been identified by local community representatives and authorities in the Ballymurphy area of West Belfast namely;
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Young people at risk
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Increased risk of crime and anti-social behaviour
These issues are having a negative impact on young people and their community. The young people are being demonised due to the activities of a very specific group, and the community is suffering with some very negative press over the past number of months because of the increase in anti-social behaviour and gang related violence.
Locally, youth unemployment, lack of opportunities, and low motivation creates an environment where young people with a low risk of being involved in crime, can be drawn into more serious activity. GOALS targets at risk young people on the fringes of a more seriously involved criminal peer group. They can be swayed towards criminal activity by the lure of monetary rewards and increased status among their peers.
Local input has suggested offering alternatives to this behaviour pattern is a daily battle for parents, statutory agencies, front line youth services and the PSNI. The GOALS project seeks to work with those involved in this behaviour through an innovative range of local partnerships.
Funded by Comic Relief, the programme offers a targeted approach to engage 20 of the most disaffected young people age range 16-20 years through an innovative sports inclusion programme. The age range targeted responds to feedback we have received from local organisations that have found this group particularly hard to engage. The programme works to promote positive change through the use of activities and provision that motivate and challenge participants. In designing this approach we are conscious that an alternative mechanism of engagement and delivery is paramount to achieve our outcomes. All project participants are detached from mainstream provision and it is only through offering activities that will invoke responses, breakdown barriers and present new progression pathways that the project can engage this particular group.
The aim of the programme is to use behaviours, emotions and ethics associated with sport as a driver to help address social conditions and lack of aspirations within young people in the community. Our goal is to help inspire those young people so they have an opportunity to progress into new avenues of education, community development, youth work, sports coaching or leadership and become positive role models within their community.
