Liverpool is a city of culture (European Capital of Culture 2008) with a rich history of music (The Beatles, Mersey Beat) and football of course. The city is working class. The tourist attraction of the Albert Docks (see welcome event 19 July) was once a thriving port full with dockers and Liverpool’s shipbuilding industry at one time was the world leader. Those heady economic days are long gone. These days Liverpool is better known in the UK for crime and also poverty.
Our partner Street League offers education programming for school drop-outs and youth that many would say are unemployable. They use the power of play, including football, to help to increase the confidence of their participants and to give these young people the chance to find jobs and to take part actively in society. Football is a key element of Street League’s programming.
Street League is a team on and off the pitch. Their office is full of life. Participants feel part of the family. Martin, for example, took part in the programme as a participant and now he is employed by Street League. The office door is always open. Joanne and Ellie provide parental love and care that has often been missing in the lives of the youth participants. Martin invited Spirit to join in a team building activity using giant Kinballs. Benny from Spirit, who leads a community building project called WSD, declared that he will implement the balls and games learned into school and community projects in Germany. Later, Spirit led a fair-play football session. Street League were impressed particularly by the use of music to engage participants. Such exchanges were not possible during the Corona pandemic but are important.
Street League and Spirit of Football are both part of the Common Goal football-for-good family. Indeed, both organisations are supported by a very famous football personality: Jürgen Klopp. At the end of the session, we came together with Street League participants to record a thank you message for Jürgen, Spirit of Football’s fair play ambassador.