More Than Football Award 2023 Longlist: Foundation 92 – Safer Places Greater Manchester Programme
The European Football for Development Network (EFDN) is proud to present the Foundation 92 – Safer Places Greater Manchester Programme project, that has been selected for the longlist of the More than Football Award 2023.
Based in the heart of Salford, Manchester, Foundation 92 is an independent registered charity that focuses on supporting communities to improve their lives through sport, education and bespoke projects, with an emphasis on positive physical and mental wellbeing. At Foundation 92, the community is at the heart of everything that it does and strives to provide a sustainable, successful and reliable service for those in need, with impactful and lasting benefits.
As the Greater Manchester communities came out of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021 and 2022, instances of Risk taking and Anti-social behaviour, notedly drug taking, criminal damage, staff assault and serial risk taking behaviour, across all aspects of public transport were on the rise. During the Summer of 2022, Transport for Greater Manchester and Foundation 92 came together to design and develop a pilot outreach programme across Greater Manchester at Bus Stations and Interchanges, to tackle such risk taking and anti-social behaviour as well as, to re-educate those responsible.
“We believe the community should be at the centre of everything we do and we strive to provide a sustainable, successful and reliable service for those most in need. “
Tom Hutton, Head of Foundation 92
MAIN PROJECT OBJECTIVES
- Reduce incidents involving youth anti-social behaviour across Greater Manchester’s transport links
- Raise awareness and drive positive behaviour amongst 11–18-year-olds with engaging content/ workshops such as:
- The importance of recognising their behaviour and the impact this can have on others.
- Anti-Social behaviour and the escalation into criminal activity, and the association with this
- Exploitation
- Drug and Alcohol misuse
- Provide a safe provision for young people to build relationships, educate and support them whilst offering a warm and safe place
- Ensure the wider benefits for those users of public transport to feel safe whilst travelling across Greater Manchester.
Following a successful partnership with Children In Need and many others, Foundation 92 was able to purchase and fit out a Mobile Youth Hub which includes Xboxes, a TV, tables, chairs, toilets and a kitchenette. This enables the delivery team to deploy their youth work in to the heart of communities where the risk taking, and anti-social behaviour levels are most high and taking place.
Foundation 92 mentors use the vehicle of football to engage with highly vulnerable people, to access a safe and warm environment which is the Mobile hub. When the young people access the hub, they are provided with specialist advice, guidance and mentoring, which provides them with the knowledge and skill set to make positive and informed decisions around their behaviour. This has led to significant improvement in conduct and behaviour around the transport network, and has significantly improved public safety perception, using the vehicle of football to provide safer and positive communities.
“Through street-based work in Little Hulton, Foundation 92 eradicated instances of young people throwing missiles at buses passing for a period of 4 weeks. There have been no instances of this since the work has been completed”.
Transport for Greater Manchester Operations Manager
The Mobile Youth Hub is a unique, behaviour-change focused engagement tool, unlike anything else currently in operation around the transport networks in the United Kingdom. Thanks to its impact, other cities are now looking to replicate this across their transport networks using the Safer Places Greater Manchester Programme as the best practice model.
