Football bringing communities together
A group of young black, white and mixed race teenagers from Bristol have launched a film telling the story of how football helped them overcome the race, class and geographical divisions.
'This is our Journey' is the story of 15 boys from Knowle West (a predominately white area) and 15 boys from St Paul's and Easton (multicultural areas), brought together into one football team to represent Bristol. it follows their progress to the final of the Young Bristol Cup and records how their attitudes toward each other changed through the process.
Kick It Out support
In the past, there have been violent, racially motivated clashes between the communities. Derek Scale is currently the team leader for the FA skills coaching team for Somerset but at the time of the project was working for Positive Futures St Pauls.
"Knowle held a tournament and we brought the kids up from st Pauls. I heard back that there were comments made by the white kids. And the St Pauls kids were saying things to me about the Knowle kids. We looked and thought let's address this head on.
"We got funding from Kick It Out for their Week of Action in October and used it to bring the youngsters into one team."
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Provding a pathway
Derek worked alongside James Edwards of Positive Futures Knowle West. He says there are much wider benefits. "We started with a group of lads who are on the verge of being kicked out of school and some who had been kicked out already; we show where they are now and how their lives now have a pathway. They are all back in education."
Fifteen year old Brian Williams was one of the St Pauls players. "I think it was good as I got to play with different people from different areas. Befroe we all played together, they just used to go on what people heard about us. They were saying that people said not to come to St Pauls as you'd get stabbed. And we didn't go up there. But now they know us, they come down and have a good time and we see them on a Sunday when we play together."
Praise
It's a simple programme that has captured the imagination of the local authorities. When the film was previewed at a recent conference on Community Cohesion in Bristol, members of the City Council's Community Development Team committed to support similar border crossing programmes.
It has proven to be quite an inspiration in a city described in the 2006 Joseph Rowntree Report 'Cultural Diversity in Britain' as 'offering either a largely white environment or a segregated one.' And it's a city that's going to have to face up to the growing challenge on the question of race relations with around eight percent of the general population but 22 percent of the school population coming from BME communities.
Making a difference
Derek says the biggest achievement is simlpy that the boys know each other now. "There's always going to be some tensions as long as we have these white and black areas. But our boys now just get on with football and at the end of the game they shake hands and have a laugh. And they take that into life with them."
By Marvin Rees, The Voice
