Youth Sports Initiative

One aspect of the community that we as an organisation wanted to support, was the youth. Whether this be a 4-year-old discovering football or basketball for the first time, or a teenager looking for something to do in their free time after school or at the weekends.

To this end, Breaking Down Barriers has embarked upon a collaboration with members of the local community to take this vision even further. We sourced instructors who are able and qualified to teach young children within a timetable of allocated classes several times a week. We have currently incorporated sports such as badminton, cricket, football, basketball, rounders and even indoor archery.

Our aim is to bring children of different ages, ethnicities and cultures together where they can learn new skills and create new friendships, both on and off the pitch.

We teamed up with sporting entities such as Sports In You and Atlas Amateur Boxing Club and in doing so have extended the reach and benefits, not only to BDB, but also provided greater exposure for these other organisations theirs by creating exposure and new clients for them.

During these sports sessions the children are taught team building, communication skills and how to improve their physical fitness, both within the sport they’re undertaking, but also outside the activity itself. This is done by training them up for bleep tests and teaching them fitness techniques which they can then apply in later life.

As well as being lots of fun for the youth, these sessions also bring family and friends together as many of the parents prefer to stay around and watch the activities, and of course everybody is welcome to stay and watch.

When it comes to the older children amongst our youth, we also realise that it’s vital to provide them with more than just activities, we need to provide them with somewhere to go at an affordable price where they can socialise.

We are well aware that at a certain age many youngsters will spend time out of the house, and this often leads to them congregating in the streets or parks with friends, which could possibly to lead to less constructive and even anti-social behaviour.

With this in mind we provide a social venue for activities for this group of the youth at affordable prices to ensure that they are able to participate in sports and be a part of our community in a safe healthy environment.

As an organisation we have taken the initiative to carefully source and provide high quality equipment so that children can participate in all sports without having to worry about going out to buy their own.

Breaking Down Barriers aims to provide a second home, a safe positive environment, for our youth and children. We hope to strengthen the community and help prevent many of the social ailments that have befallen so many of our young in the past.