Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: 'Getting to Know You: Using sport to engage and build relationships with socially marginalised young people'Core aspirations concerning the capacity of sport to deliver a range of social objectives in a community development context, are shared by the architects of domestic development initiatives and by strategists who wish to use sport within international development assistance programs. This paper is concerned with the extent to which lessons learned in the domestic arena, are applicable to the wider development community. To do this, it will focus on the findings of ongoing research from the UK Home Office funded Positive Futures Case Study Research Project which is focused on case study projects using sports based activities to engage ?hard to reach? and socially marginalized young people. It will consider the relationship between project activity and ?the Positive Futures approach? articulated in the Cul-de-sacs and gateways strategy document which outlines what might be seen as a discrete and alternative perspective which breaks with conventional sporting and youth justice models of social development: The Positive Futures programme has been built up around young people?s involvement in sporting activity but it is not concerned with the celebration, development or promotion of sport as an end in itself. Nor does it merely attempt to use sport as a simple ?diversion? or alternative to time spent engaging in drug use and crime. Positive Futures is a relationship strategy based on the principle that engagement through sport and the building of mutual respect and trust can provide cultural ?gateways? to alternative lifestyles (Home Office, 2003:8).