We provide FREE football opportunities for young people, aged 13-25. Its a social inclusion project, aimed at people who may be lacking in confidence or who don't have the parental support to pay to play. Football for All, we don't exclude anyone, we help them to develop playing skills and life skills, they do not have to attend every week. Once we have attracted a young person to come along for a kick about, we can engage with them and offer support on many different youth issues such as careers, housing, drugs and alcohol abuse, staying safe, sexual health, finding work, mental wellbeing etc. Boys and girls, young people with physical disability or additional learning needs all are very welcome to come along and join Upfront. We offer a service to young people which does not exist, we help young people to gain self esteem and gain their trust, we can sign post them to other youth support services, training and education. We can support them to go onto volunteer, coach or become a referee.
We offer football sessions every Monday evening in a safe and friendly environment, at a state of art facility. We register each person and gain consent from parents or carers. Once at the project, we can then engage with them to see how we can help them to stay in education, training or to find employment. We also signpost them to alternative youth services, such as youth connexions or Pro Action, North Herts College, apprenticeships. Occasionally we attend football tournaments, we have a team who play in a local Futsal league and our Incluisve team plays once a month in a league. We organise football matches against partners, such as police and fire service and then go to watch Stevenage FC play.
