Ending Youth Unemployment

Street League is a national charity which uses the power of sport to tackle youth unemployment across England and Scotland. Their vision is to see an end to youth unemployment in the UK.  

With award-winning combined sport and employability academies, Street League works with 16-24 year olds from disadvantaged backgrounds, enabling them to move into sustainable work, training or education. All of the young people that Street League works with face multiple barriers to employment - from low attainment at school to mental health issues and criminal involvement. 

At each of their 36 academies - from Dundee to London - young people develop their:

• confidence,
• skills, and
• aspirations

through classroom-based workshops and sports sessions.

The programme covers employability skills like teamwork, communication and self-awareness as well as supporting young people to gain nationally recognised qualifications, write their CV and practise their interview skills. Sport is a fantastic way of engaging young people and building their skills whilst having fun. Street League's support doesn't end when a young person moves into work, a training placement or education course: their aftercare service ensures that young people are supported for six months after they graduate from their academy.

Developing Confidence And Skills

Thanks to the support of players of People's Postcode Lottery, Street League has transformed the lives of 1,178 young people in the last 12 months by moving them into employment, education or training (this represents 57% of the 2,076 young people they have worked with).

Steven is one of the young people whose life has been transformed by players of People's Postcode Lottery. From Glasgow, Steven went from being a 'wee angel' at primary school to quickly falling in with the wrong crowd at high school and was soon regularly missing school and taking drugs with his friends. He has dyslexia which made school even more unappealing to him and he left school with very few qualifications. Steven had a couple of jobs as a young adult but didn't hold them down and was working with the Job Centre when he first came across Street League. He attended a Street League academy in Toryglen and enjoyed the daily sport sessions. Steven said that Street League really helped him to build his confidence, especially with his CV and filling in job applications as he identified his dyslexia as his main barrier to employment.  

He also found he can now speak more easily to people he doesn't know. His new-found skills and confidence led Steven to being successful in his application to The Glasgow Fort and he is now enjoying his new role as an Environmental Operative, conducting a variety of cleaning and maintenance tasks on the shopping promenade. This was possible thanks to the guidance Steven received from Street League.