Slough Sports Scholarship programme (professionals)
The Slough Sports Scholarship Programme is funded by Thames Valley Violence Reduction Unit and StreetGames.
This programme is using sport to enhance positive outcomes for young people in the context of serious youth violence, building on a young person’s strengths and developing a young person’s pro-social identity.
Following the Public Health approach to serious youth violence we are working with young people who are identified as being secondary level and require early intervention. This is a targeted approach for young people who have been identified as engaging in behaviours associated with offending.
Many of these young people will be known to Locally Trusted Organizations (LTO) or will be referred by another agency. This level of intervention requires more formal support and expertise to address the existing behaviours and prevent escalation.
The programme will focus on young people aged 10-24 that are experiencing at least one of the following.
- At risk of exclusion from school or college.
- Arrested within the last 3 months.
- At risk of gang related violence or involved in gang exploitation and gang violence.
- Attended A&E due to violence and or risk-taking behaviour.
- Carried a knife or weapon in the last 3 months.
Secondary intervention – the right young people
- Young people experiencing challenging circumstances and with additional vulnerabilities.
- Working with young people who are victims, perpetrators, or both.
- Young people who have been formally or informally referred by agencies, who have been signposted to the sessions or who are self-referred.
- Including young people in a group sport-based sessions as pro-social peer role models with shared lived experience.
- If group sessions, we will provide additional structure to support a pro-social approach and to avoid the potential for ‘deviancy’ training or the recruitment to gangs.
Programme approach
- Targeted at those considered at risk of involvement in youth offending.
- Can be individual/family approach and or targeted at geographical ‘hot spot’ areas.
Examples of sport programmes
- Targeted and/or ‘hot spot’ group sport sessions.
- Sport-based one-to-one mentoring programmes.
- Formal sport volunteering opportunities including training and qualifications.
- Residentials trips with outdoor adventure activities.
- Can be linked to ‘primary intensity level’ sports programmes to provide additional opportunities if appropriate.
The Slough Sports Scholarship Programme is providing opportunity for 40 young people to be:
- supported on a sport based one-to-one mentoring programme
- to be placed into local community sport provision for a 12-month period.
Through the programme they will be supported to develop their life skills, which will help them learn and develop a pro-social identity. The young people referred will be provided with opportunity, involvement, skills development and reinforcement and positive activities leading to a positive identity.
The programme will have a child first response, prioritizing the needs of positive outcomes of the child or young person.
Our community sports practitioners have been completing various training to develop their contextual safeguarding knowledge, giving them the skills to be able to effectively work in this space. They will be delivering a trauma informed approach at their sessions; they have increased depth of knowledge in Neurodiversity and are able to support Neurodivergent young people, they will be able to provide adaptations that encourage the young person thrive in group-based sessions, which in turn will transfer to other aspects of their lives.
Our sport-based one-to-one mentoring provider 50-50 Sync have years of experience in youth work, we are using their LAB system to evidence skill development. Each young person will complete a journal over the course of the 12-months, within this 12-month timeframe they will also be able to access group-based sessions when the young person has developed their competency and confidence.
If you have a young person who you feel would benefit from this programme, then please complete a referral form available in the section below.
The referral process
To refer a young person into the programme, please ensure you follow the below procedure.
- Identify a young person aged 10-24 that meets the criteria above.
- Maintaining a child first approach, please discuss with the child/young person first about the opportunity.
- Gain parental consent to sharing personal contact details with the Sport and Leisure Team (Active Slough).
- Advise the parents/guardians to expect a call from the Sport and Leisure Team.
- Complete Slough Sports Scholarship programmee referral form with as much information as possible, as we will not accept incomplete referral forms.
Please note: we will not process applications if there is no child/young person engagement or parent/guardian engagement. We will not accept referrals through email or via an excel document but if you would like to discuss a young person before making a referral, please contact Chrissy.Newman@Slough.gov.uk.
