Physical and mental health & Wellbeing
North Lincolnshire
How did the Tackling Inequalities Funding (TIF) help?
Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC) in North Lincolnshire had been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to the pandemic, the young people had sporadically come together in a local park to have a kick around. However, the pandemic had prevented them from being able to do this and as a result, had impacted negatively on their physical and mental health.
As lockdown restrictions eased the Dost project (a health & wellbeing, befriending and signposting portal for ethnically diverse communities) and North Lincolnshire Council Children's Services team felt that the service users would benefit from a structured activity that had a long-term goal which would enable them to participate in an activity they enjoyed whilst having fun and being physically active.
What did the Tackling Inequalities Funding support?
The funding supported the young people to access football training sessions delivered by Scunthorpe United Sports & Education Trust, who provided weekly structured training sessions in the lead up to the Humber All Nations Alliance (HANA) football tournament.
After several weeks of training the UASC service users team 'Scunthorpe Lions' participated in the HANA World Cup on 07/08/2021 at the University of Hull. The team showed great enthusiasm and determination, going up against three other teams in the group stages. Their journey in the tournament ended in the group stages but the impact of the training is expected to last much longer with plans already being made to continue the training beyond the tournament.
One of the additional benefits of attending the tournament was that some of the players from the UASC were able to get their COVID-19 vaccination thanks to the presence of a pop-up centre organised by HANA in conjunction with the NHS Hull Clinical Commissioning Group.
The boys really appreciated getting to go somewhere and play football competitively. It’s given them a lot of motivation to go on and play more tournaments. Usually they’re just having a kick round their local park. But they’ve responded well to having actual rules and the competitive nature. You could see some really wanted to win and they had different ways to show it.
I love football. It is my dream to become a professional footballer. It’s been very good to play with my friends. They understand me, I understand them.
Football is my hope. I used to play football in Sudan. It’s a great thing to play with my friends. My friends have a similar story as me. Football is a way for us to meet each other and have fun.
I cannot thank you all enough. I'm so proud of these young people (service users) and having your support means such a lot. Thank you.
