40 Spoon Community Projects Projects round up
With the first Game On! projects due to commence this autumn, Wooden Spoon and YMCA, together with the professional rugby bodies in the UK recognise the need for collaborative, multi agency project work, as the best means of supporting young people to a positive outcome. The multi agency approach makes it more difficult for young people to fall between the cracks. Game On! has been designed to catch any young person that fails to engage at a given stage of the programme and provides significant, personalised support for every participant to help them develop.
This form of team work on its own is not enough. Wooden Spoon realises the need to improve community sport projects, there is strong evidence of the sustained outcomes which is extremely important when it comes to any commercial project as stakeholders (particularly funding bodies) can see a direct return on investment (social investment in the case of Game On! and similar community programmes). It is no longer enough to simply state that participation in sport helps raise self esteem. Anyone close to this type of community sports programme can tell you with conviction that this is the case but through Game On! Wooden Spoon and YMCA aim to prove that participation in sports affects a demonstrable and sustainable behavioral change in participants and that this is itself is the single most important ingredient in helping to improve the lives of disaffected young people in our communities. Wooden Spoon is delighted to
present Dr. Rosie Meek (BA, MRes, PGCHE, PhD, FRSA) who has kindly agreed to externally evaluate Game On! project outcomes. “I was attracted to Wooden Spoon’s Game On for a number of reasons. Primarily, the programme’s aims fit well with my research interest in the role of sport in engaging with young people who are socially excluded, in the criminal justice system, or of NEET
Spoonews Autumn 2011
www.woodenspoon.com
(not in education, employment or training) status. The research I’ve been carrying out in the past few years has confirmed that sport can be an incredibly effective ‘hook’ for young people, particularly those who may be hard to engage with or who lack motivation. Once a young person is engaged through sport participation, I have found that educational or personal development components are easier to deliver and can be a lot more effective in meeting their objectives. The work I’ve done with young prisoners has centred on football and rugby, and although I would maintain that any sport that a young person can get enjoyment from participating in can serve a useful purpose in this context, I am especially interested in how the values associated with rugby can provide a particularly meaningful and effective way of developing a positive identity, and improving empowerment, leadership, teamwork and self-governance. However, Game On goes beyond the assumption that rugby can (and does) bring about positive changes, with a commitment to developing an effective educational and personal development component to the project which has the benefit of being delivered
Dr Rosie Meek
by partners at YMCA who have a wealth of experience in targeted youth work.
As an academic, I’m
particularly enthusiastic about my role as external evaluator for Wooden Spoon. As with any new programme, there are bound to be lessons learnt along the way in improving the design and delivery of the scheme. Part of my role will be using the research to inform such developments to ensure that the programme evolves to be as effective as possible. But as a psychologist I am especially excited about the scientific challenge of using a robust and carefully planned evaluation methodology to explore not only whether the programme succeeds in meeting its aims, but how it works, and why. We have developed and refined a set of validated and reliable psychometric measures that will provide objective evidence of the progression of those participating in the scheme. Along with measures detailing entry into training or employment, and increased physical activity, we are exploring progression on a range of psychological constructs which will provide valuable evidence for the effectiveness of Game On.
Spoon Community Projects
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