Why community sports clubs are the key to tackling youth unemployment in the UK
This problem of disengaged youth is one that expands far beyond the UK: in Spain, Greece, Croatia and Italy almost half of people aged under 25 are unemployed. Africa’s youth unemployment problem has been the subject of much debate in recent years, and in America — despite unemployment levels being at their lowest since 2008 — for young adults aged 20 to 24 unemployment continues to rise. In 2011, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) warned of a “scarred generation” of young people across the global facing a “dangerous mix of high unemployment, increase inactivity and precarious work in developed countries, as well as persistently high working poverty in the developing world.”
Joe had no Plan B outside of university, and he faced an uncertain future. He had always had a passion for hockey, but had never considered it to be a career option until he was offered a six month contract working with Hockey Wales in conjunction with Vi-Ability. With this opportunity, he learnt a variety of new skills from administration to organising international events, and at the end of his placement he was offered a new contract in the position of Business Support Officer.
Using sports as a vessel for social change and a tool to engage disaffected or ignored populations, when done right, can have a huge impact — as many organisations such as The Homeless World Cup and Skateistan demonstrate. Vi-Ability’s approach differs from other social enterprises, however, by focusing on the business side of sport.
The idea of Vi-Ability first came to its founder, Ashoka Fellow and former Welsh international football player Kelly Davies, when she was studying for an MBA in football industry. She realised that the key to tackling one of modern society’s biggest issues — youth unemployment — could be found in another prevalent issue facing communities worldwide: the loss of sports clubs through poor financial management.
“I identified a rising number of sports clubs were going into administration, or being threatened by it, and they needed a more professional approach, they needed to know how to generate income and how to engage with the community, which was their fan base,” Kelly explains. “The huge number of young people not in education or employment need opportunities to gain employment, they need learning programmes that give them encouragement and guidance, and that meet their needs and aspirations.”
To tackle these two issues, Vi-Ability is affecting three systemic changes across society: firstly, it is challenging how disengaged young people — or ‘NEETs’ — are viewed by society by showing them as an asset, not a hindrance. It provides learning programmes to help young people from a wide range of backgrounds to become entrepreneurs — from recent graduates struggling to stand out in the difficult job climate, to ex-professional sportspeople unsure of their next career move, to those who struggled to find their place in traditional education systems.
Secondly, Vi-Ability is educating sports clubs to run like a business and make well-thought out financial decisions that will benefit the club and, crucially, their communities. Finally, they are demonstrating that sport can be a cost-effective tool to address political agendas such as unemployment and health.
Vi-Ability is empowering the next generation of changemakers through transformative, hands-on experiences of running sports clubs where participants become the leaders and drivers of change. By giving ownership of the work to the young people on the training courses, Vi-Ability is ensuring a pattern of sustainable community development.
For Vi-Ability, success is a sports club becoming a financially stable, thriving community hub and centre of learning where young people could come and develop key life and employability skills, and, importantly, develop their horizons.
“I want to inspire the young people who participate in our programmes to go from affecting a community of 300, to affecting one of three million,” says Kelly. “We’re going to take over the world!”
- By Ellen Goodman, Ashoka UK. Kelly Davies was elected as an Ashoka Fellow in 2015 and Vi-Ability recently won Social Enterprise of the Year at the 2015 Social Enterprise UK (SEUK) Awards. For more news from the Ashoka network, subscribe to our newsletter or follow us on twitter.
Originally published at www.virgin.com on December 14, 2015.
