Aims 1/2
The Full Story
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To improve physical activity levels amongst young inner city people. In turn this will work towards reducing anti social behaviour, levels of crime rate reducing, greater community cohesion and more productivity throughout the community. It will also help to tackle health related issues such as obesity, mental health issues etc. We measure this with short surveys asking how active they are without our provision compared to how active they are with our provision. We also ask what they would be doing, if our sessions weren’t on.
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To up-skill young people to make them more employable. We will do this by offering them opportunities and mentoring from people they can relate to that have also grown up in similar communities and have managed to be fairly successful in life. If the youngsters can relate to someone, that goes half way almost to achieving as they then believe it is possible. We provide them with opportunities to volunteer, go on to courses and to take part in new experiences . This is important because it addresses barriers such as cost, lack of knowledge, sense of belonging and support. Once more this will reduce anti social behaviour and crime rates, as well as increasing levels of employment and having more positive role models in the inner city communities.
Street Futures CIC was setup in 2018 to support and address issues highlighted by inner city communities of Birmingham. The organisation is working to tackle challenging issues such as a rise in unemployment, theft and violent crime, anti social behaviour, inactivity, inequalities and the lack of opportunities for those coming from deprived communities. After liaising with the locals of our targeted communities we realised that there was a shortage of programs and projects within the communities to tackle these issues.Locals also expressed concerns about not letting their children out to play due an increase of drug abuse, gun and knife crime in the area, with some of the younger locals also expressing that they could be targeted by bullies and thieves.
We identified that our local residents felt that there was a lack of opportunities of progressing academically, getting paid work and finding pathways in competitive sports. The founders are likeminded young individuals who had a passion of sports, coaching and helping young people fulfil their potential and through their own experiences, identified the need for local role models and qualified individuals who can guide and mentor the next generation.
We offer physical activity in various forms such as holiday activities where we are providing children with somewhere safe to go during the holidays as well as learning new skills and keeping fit, whilst providing parents with some respite and affordable childcare. Our physical activity sessions are also available during school term time, largely over the weekend across East Birmingham in the form of physical activities such as football, cricket, tennis, dodgeball and table tennis. By offering youngsters a safe space to attend and take part in hobbies, whilst offering them opportunities to up-skill themselves we aim to tackle all the issues mentioned above and more. This will in turn allow for more positive role models to be active and present in the community, pathways to success being widely available, reduction in anti social behaviour and crime levels as well as an increase in employment, but most importantly there will be greater community cohesion.
Street Futures is determined to make a difference to the lives of those living in the inner city areas of Birmingham and are striving to get young people become the best they can be, despite challenging surroundings and circumstances. Street Futures seeks to prioritise the recruitment of local community members (ideally people who have come through our programs) where possible, in order to raise awareness and highlight the talent and skills which exist in the inner city suburbs of Birmingham. Building on this Street Futures aims to raise a regional awareness of all our projects and activities to elevate the profile of our communities and diverse cohesion we have amongst us.
Aims 2/2
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To provide pathways and connect youngsters to get into amateur sports teams. So much talent in the inner cities is often left to waste and this is because the individuals haven’t had the exposure and guidance to amateur sports clubs for one reason or another. From not knowing where to go to join, to the cost, to travel, even to the extent of feeling uncertain. Through our programmes we are able to build rapport with youngsters and gain their trust so when we offer them or inform them about certain teams they feel more comfortable and are more likely to join because its come from someone they trust but also because we are also apart of the teams/clubs we are signposting them to.
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To provide respite and support for parents in the form of affordable childcare. We offer affordable provision with our sessions generally costing between £1.50-3.00 for a two hour long session with discounts for additional siblings. This is because we know of the struggles people are facing across the country, let alone those in the poorest communities so we are doing what we can from a point of view of cost being a barrier. Alongside cost, often parents with multiple children have to give more time and attention to a certain child, whether that is due to their age, health or as simple as no interest in getting involved in physical activity, parents are left with dilemmas of how to balance it out all out. By us offering our provision they can send those that want the provision and/or are able to, whilst they can care for the child that requires more attention.