Sport Universities North East England
(SUNEE) has won the 2009 BBC Power of Sport
Award, supported by Sport England, for the North East and
Cumbria.
Sport Universities North East England (SUNEE)
is a partnership between the five North East universities – Durham,
Newcastle, Northumbria, Sunderland and Teesside – and works with
disadvantaged groups throughout the region by providing people with
access to regular, safe and structured sports and physical activity
opportunities.
The sport on offer through the project include
football, badminton and both codes of rugby - to name but a
few.
The project started in April 2006, and uses
university students as coaches and volunteers who work with
disadvantaged groups in either a university venue or in a community
setting.
Referral agencies into the projects include
drug and alcohol agencies, homeless hostels, vulnerable women’s
groups, disadvantaged young people’s groups, refugee and
asylum groups, probation and job centres.
There are two types of sessions, ‘open’ or
‘closed’. Open sessions are available to anyone over the age
of 16 and not in education, employment or training and take place
across the region.
Closed sessions involve working with specific
referral agencies and are only accessible to their clients.
Activity takes place on a regular basis according to the need of
the organisations and the participants.
SUNEE is also working with several prisons in
the region to raise awareness of their work to prisoners who are
soon to be released. The aim is to engage them immediately upon
release so they have the opportunity of regular sporting activities
to participate in and use to add structure into their lives.
As the SUNEE project has developed, so has the
remit of the groups they work with. They have now opened up
the activities to all drug and alcohol agencies across the North
East. This scheme, known as the ‘Second Chance sports
programme’, has inspired another programme that engages homeless
hostels and looked after children across the region. The
third area of SUNEE’s development focuses on vulnerable women’s
groups and disengaged young people. Most recently SUNEE has
entered into partnership with the national charity, Street League,
which offers young people over the age of 16 the opportunity to
play sport in fun and safe environments. The project has been
described by FIFA as the 'the strongest development through a
football organisation currently operating in the UK'.
One of SUNEE’s greatest success stories comes
from Graham who joined the Second Chance programme after spending
most of his youth in prison.
Graham, a 32 year old from Sunderland, is one
of the many people to have benefited from SUNEE’s work. Graham’s
life was taken up almost entirely by drugs, alcohol, violence and
crime and, as a result, several periods in prison. When Graham was
told that his next offence would result in a life sentence, he
realised that he needed help and turned to SUNEE. Graham came onto
their Second Chance sports programme and since then has passed his
FA Level 1 coaching certificate, has taken on a mentoring and
support role at the Second Chance sessions, and has represented his
team in tournaments both regionally and further afield. The change
of scene and positive direction started Graham on a new course in
life. Graham is now volunteering at a drug treatment centre and
attending college.
More more information on the project, visit their website:
http://www.sunee.org.uk