Trust Chair Tim Hartley attended the Commonwealth Youth Exchange Council seminar to discuss the Trust’s work with the local community and last year’s project with the Kenyan Bluebirds. Here’s his report.
Ali Abdi of Cardiff Youth Service,Tim Hartley, Ahmed Ahmed of Wales Somaliland Link, and Musa Yousuf ,Somali Youth Association
Football’s important to all of us, but can it actually change society? The coaches and youth workers from around who attended the recent ‘Games Without Frontiers’ seminar in Glasgow seem to think so. We had come together to discuss how we can use football as a tool to help promote understanding and peace and heard some amazing stories of the efforts people are making to mend some of society’s ills through football and fair play.
Michael and Jim from Belfast are getting young people to kick a ball at each other rather than hurl objects over the peace wall. “It does work,” said Michael, “you take the kids out of the poisoned environment of their community and into a bubble of peace and goodwill. The ‘craic’ is good and the football is a real leveller.”
Nadine Brelstaff has been working with Football 4 Peace in Israel with Arab and Israeli youths. She stops the game when there is an incident and asks the players to consider what they did and how they reacted. “We are using football lessons for everyday life,” she says. “Mind you, it was not all plain sailing over there. We were not allowed into the occupied territories. And our tournament final was disrupted by, er, a recent bombing.”
We as a Trust are also trying to break down barriers and challenge the myth that football is still part of a yob culture. For three seasons now we have been inviting local communities, religious groups and new migrants to the stadium to share our passion for the City. Feedback has been positive and everyone said they would love to come again. We also have a partnership with a group of Kenyan ‘Active Citizens’ and with the help of the club have travelled to Nairobi to help train them to use football to bring communities together. Cardiff was well represented at the seminar with four of the city’s Somali youth workers also attending.
One of the most inspirational speakers at the seminar was Andy McLaren. Andy was brought up in Glasgow, played for Reading and Dundee and got a cap for Scotland. He has had his own problems with drink and drugs but now runs community schemes in his home city. He wants to show young people in the high rise flats that there are alternatives. And it does work. Over the last two years his work with Strathclyde police has helped lower complaints about drinking and anti social behaviour and reduced knife crime.
We also heard about research showing that messages on health and sex education are better retained when they are presented through sport rather than in a classroom. So there we are, not only is football really good fun, it is also a force for good. Fact!