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Promoting Wellbeing & Community Through Football | Good News Story
16 09 22
Bedspace has always strived to make a positive experience with the individuals we work with. Our Team is filled with passionate people who do not simply clock in, read from a worksheet and clock out. Instead, they aim to go above and beyond with the young people (YP) they support, finding new and innovative ways to empower and positively integrate their YP into their local communities.
The Team actively love what they do and a great example of this can be seen in Alex Mufti’s work with the young Asylum Seeking individuals in Liverpool (you can see his video where he references this here).
At the beginning of this year, Alex reached out to the young asylum seekers and asked them about their interests. So many responded to him about their love of football and how they miss playing.
With this in mind, Alex approached the Bedspace Senior team about booking a local astro-pitch, once a week, to enable them to play regularly.
We thought this was a fantastic idea and funded not only the pitch but additional footballs and coloured bibs. These sessions have continued to take place every week since January at a centre where the YP also have gym passes.
These sessions have shown to be incredibly popular, with some weeks seeing upwards of 30 attendees! Each session is always supported by at least two Bedspace Support Workers, who will often get involved.
Opportunities like this are key to supporting our YP. It gives them the chance to exercise, but more importantly, a chance to meet and befriend other YP, thus preventing social isolation.
We see this time as beneficial for both the YP and our Support Workers, who are given the chance to meet other YP that are supported by their colleagues. This helps to create a friendly and family atmosphere with their peers.
Several YP have reached out to Alex and the Bedspace Team and have spoken about how the session has become an important part of their week. They regularly talk about how they look forward to it and always leave feeling positive and more motivated.
For Alex, as a Support Worker, it is great to see the YP enjoying themselves and widening their social network.
This is just one of many ways #TeamBedspace goes above and beyond to support young people and we look forward to sharing more stories in the future!