National Conversation on Sport: Street Soccer Scotland take over community centre

Street Soccer Scotland is a social enterprise and charity which uses the power of football to create positive change.

Founded in 2009, Street Soccer Scotland uses football as a way to inspire and help people, now supports more than a thousand people across Scotland each year.

Working across Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee they help provide training and personal development to empower people affected by social exclusion, helping them to change their lives for the better.

Now they are setting up a home-base in Dundee - and at the same time saving the much-loved Lynch Centre on the city outskirts from an uncertain future.

Like many facilities run by large trusts, the Lynch Centre has been closed throughout lockdown, something which meant a huge loss of income.

Dundee Leisure and Culture had already moved a lot of activities to more modern venues, which added to the uncertainty.

For Street Soccer Scotland however it proved a great opportunity. The charity has long been planning to create a purpose-built centre that would include sports facilities, accommodation for people that are homeless and a community hub where people could access vital support and information.

While that purpose-built venue remains an ambition, the opportunity presented by the Lynch Centre, was one they couldn’t pass up.

And having taken over the centre on April 1 they are now looking to invest £150,000 in renovations to the complex, with funding from the Scottish Government’s Social Innovation Partnership, The Hunter Foundation and The Northwood Charitable Trust.

They hope to create a “change centre” at the South Road complex, offering local people use of the Centre as well as opportunities for children and young people to use the facilities, in a bid to help those suffering from social disadvantage.

Andy Hook, head of programmes at Street Soccer Scotland, said: “What we’re looking to do is bring in other partners that are active in the community who are there to provide support for issues like addiction, housing, mental health - we can house them there and give them a space so people in the community can access them.

“Travelling can be a barrier for many people, so offering access to these services outside the city centre is really important.

“We have an open door policy but our main focus is people who have been disadvantaged for whatever reason, whether through poverty, homelessness, crime, drugs. We want people to engage with us which is why we offer free sessions- the football is a carrot if you like. The people who have worked with us have said it helps give them a structure and purpose, and builds up self esteem and confidence.”

The Lynch Centre project will also see Street Soccer Scotland work with the Observatory for Sport in Scotland (OSS) and Edinburgh Napier University around a potential research project that will monitor and analyse the work of the charity in deprived communities.

And Mr Hook hopes the lessons learned from their work could be used in other community venues.

“It is definitely something we are hoping to use as a blueprint, to get feedback from the community on what they need,” he said. “We’ve done a lot of research but it won’t be until we get up and running that we can really see the benefits and see what works. Then if we were fortunate enough to get another centre elsewhere we could do the same again with all the benefits.”

When the project was first announced it was welcomed by then-communities Secretary Aileen Campbell, who said: “I’ve seen first-hand the excellent work Street Soccer Scotland does for people from socially disadvantaged backgrounds. As part of this new initiative the Lynch Centre will become a focal point for the community, allowing Street Soccer Scotland to help transform lives through football.”

And for Mr Hook, the importance of keeping community sports up and running has never been clearer than it is now.

“When lockdown hit us we were unable to do any sessions at all,” he said. “Within five weeks of the start we had three cases of attempted suicide by our players, as a result of the isolation, not being able to be part of something.

“Sport plays such a big part in giving people structure. If there’s less facilities, it reduces the opportunities for that structure, so it could have a big knock on effects and we need to address that.”