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Focus On... Basketball

How Basketball is impacting on the lives of young people and communities across the country.

basketballscotland is positively impacting the lives of young people through funding from CashBack for Communities. The exciting CashBack School of Basketball programme focuses exclusively on the east end of Glasgow, engaging young people within the community.

Engaging young people through basketball

The primary aim of the project is to work with a ‘Core Group’ of 16 pupils from three local schools: Lochend High School, St Andrews High School and St Mungo’s Academy. This project is set to have a big impact with dedicated youth workers to support each young person to overcome any challenges they may be facing during and away from physical basketball sessions.

basketballscotland are using sport to engage young people in activity to improve their physical and mental wellbeing, and to develop impactful relationships. Some of the support basketballscotland provide for young people, includes food parcels, trainers for sport, knife crime education and drug misuse guidance. The trained support workers understand that to get a positive response from these sessions, staff and coaches must build trust and engagement with youngsters and basketball is critical to this.

The impact of the project

Despite being young, the hard work of staff and support workers is already producing impressive results. An external evaluator has shown evidence that because of the programme, 97% of the young people involved are less inclined to participate in anti-social behaviour. This data has a direct correlation to young people moving to positive destinations, rather than being connected to lifelong crime.

Adam Szymoszowskyj, social impact and engagement lead at basketballscotland says:

“We have learned so much already. We realised through previous work that the east end of Glasgow is an area which could do with our support the most.

"Previously, we were diluting our impact and resources by trying a ‘changing lives’ approach across the country and we couldn’t give people the deep one-to-one support needed.”

Alongside this support, the programme has also allowed SAMH to work with the young people to support them on ways to better wellbeing. Strong partnerships have also been developed within the schools, including pastoral care and other local groups such as FARE and the community police. The partnership with FARE helped the governing body to visit young people at their doorstep during the pandemic with wellbeing being the paramount focus for the staff.

The Bigger Picture

basketballscotland want to ‘Change Lives Positively Through Basketball’ and support deprivation through their new strategic plan ‘Changing the Game’. The governing body recognises that the Scottish sporting landscape is evolving and that demands on sporting bodies include making a positive social impact on communities in Scotland that need the support the most.

Adam said: “A lot of our dedicated staffing resource to the area are made up of local people from Glasgow.

"Again, this has been intentional as we have learnt from experience that skilled local people can relate to local young people better, allowing us to make a greater positive impact to lives.”

 

Adam puts a spotlight on youth worker Jacqueline Anderson, who is pivotal to the success of the initiative. Jacqueline was brought up in the local area and harnessed her youth work skills in Easterhouse. She is flourishing by making a positive difference to the lives of the young people she works with.

Influencing future generations

The programme is already influencing future generations and their connection to the east end of Glasgow, with 90% of the young people involved having a heightened sense of belonging to the community.

To motivate these positive actions, young people need exciting opportunities and programmes like CashBack School of Basketball to give them the best chance to contribute and have more social interactions with the community. Even at this early stage, the future for the young people and the community in the east end of Glasgow looks bright.

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