The activities offered ranged from interactive and early intervention workshops covering topics such as road safety, drug/alcohol awareness, ARSON/Bonfire safety, criminal exploitation/county lines, water safety and gun/knife crime (to name a few). In addition, the programme offers a number of practical sessions which equips young people with key life skills. One of the most popular is the nutrition sessions delivered by Royal Academy of Culinary Arts. Young people are able to learn about healthy food options and alternatives working in a kitchen environment to cook meals from scratch.

The programme runs over 3 days every half term with groups selected on a rotation system from across Football+ 9 delivery sites across the city. Sessions are structured and adapted to ensure they are appropriate. MFRS partnered on the pilot, continued as main partners and used their sessions to break down barriers which may exist between young people and the emergency services. The sessions they provide are hard hitting but enable young people to consider their decisions and the consequences of these not just to themselves but to their family and wider community. All programme partners  offer their services for free or at reduced rates which have been negotiated to ensure we get the best out of financial resources; additional, a number of in-kind contributions with access to Community Fire Stations and Merseyside Police Operational Command Centre.

Since Football+ was launched, over 20 x 3-day programmes have been delivered to more than 200 young people. A change in attendance, behaviour and attitude has been noticed in many of these young people who continue to stay engaged on the Kicks football programme. Over this period, young people have achieved first aid and Paddle Board qualifications whilst developing key life skills. The young participants had  increased their social skills amongst their peers as well as challenging them to overcome fears and weaknesses using team building techniques and challenge in numerous ways. These have been achieved by working with highly skilled and experienced professionals from a number of outdoor adventure facilities we have visited such as Rock & River, The Climbing Hangar and Liverpool Water Sports Centre.

The programme has been sustained through Premier League funding as well as further investment from MFRS. The long-term impact is shaping young people via early intervention methods and education to instal good habits into adolescence.

Current topics are always well received as young people can input and interact with the external providers. For example, the work done with Get Away N Get Safe has used preventative measures to prevent young people becoming victims of exploitation and gang related culture. James Riley founder of G.A.N.G.S worked in the criminal justice system as a probation officer for over 18 years. He can use his experience and knowledge to challenge the young people to make informed decisions about their current or future lifestyle.

The programme had to be adapted to ensure the young people are combining classroom-based workshops with practical outdoor sessions. This wasn’t always the case early on however changing to this format means the response and attention shown has achieved much better outcomes. It was also important to ensure one of the community coaches who work with the group on a weekly basis attended for the duration of the 3 days. This means the young people have a familiar face with an adult role model they have already developed a positive relationship with whilst attending the football sessions.

Pre and post-group outcomes were used for the week and to give the young people the opportunity to feedback on the topics covered. This allowed youth voice to showcase what has been achieved. Working with highly skilled external providers as opposed to  trying to deliver sessions independently has been the biggest success story and is most definitely “Best Practise”. Trauma surgeons, ex-gang members, fire fighters, police officers have used real life scenarios and situations to divert young people from disadvantaged areas to consider the consequences or their actions and decisions. Small changes can make a huge difference not only to their own lives but to the wider community.