The W.E.S.T Initiative
— innovating by achieving civil society goals with grassroots football .

• An economic, very successful, tried & tested, three tier formula for delivery of football provision.

• An effective community partnership program targeting crime reduction, personal development, and the advancement of a civil society.

• Designed as an innovative prototype for inner city sports development, as a voluntary organisation evolving into local community infrastructure & capacity.

• Founded on principles of open access, non-exclusion, specifically to address problems on the street, in the local community.

• Addressing crime prevention & reduction issues by taking youth ‘off the street’ with sporting activities.

• Building ‘bridges’ within the inner city, between ethnic, and socio-economic community groups, by integrating youth via sporting activities.

• Providing opportunities for individual improvement…

• Proactively evolving an alternative model of local community sports development…

• The kids deserve a chance – it’s our duty to give it to them – the future of our society & community is in their hands.

• Open Access- every body that shows up, plays, ie no exclusion based on ability, race, creed, or ability to pay.

• Activities designed for the benefit of the young people participating, and not the adults administering the activities.

• Integrating player groups to create bridges of understanding, and avoid conflict caused by inappropriate competition.

• WEST maintains Child Protection Procedures, an Equal Opportunities Policy, and Codes of Conduct for all Personnel. All personnel are Police checked.

• As a company limited by guarantee with charitable objectives, WEST is a non-profit organisation, and is governed by it’s memorandum and articles of association, embodying the principles of youth inclusion, personal development, community bonding, and responsible citizenship, as a means of furthering the development of a civil society within deprived inner-city communities.

• Formally created in the summer of 2000:

• To meet the expressed desire of the police for youth diversion;

• Lack of structured playing opportunities for youths aged 13-17;

• Reduced access to local facilities for unstructured youth play time;

• Persistent failure by existing organisations to address these deficiencies;

• An inadequately supported voluntary sector with dire survival prospects;

In response to existing circumstances of long-standing neglect of local youth sports provision, a gap analysis was conducted evaluating all soft (programmes and people) and hard (facilities) assets in the local community. At the time of this analysis in 2000 the survival prospects for youth club football were dire, with only 3 teams scheduled to be playing that year, down from 7 two years before. The football program in the eight local secondary schools amounted to a mean of 2 matches per year. With the introduction of The WEST Initiative activities, including the very successful ‘Community Playing Session’ on Saturday afternoons at Paddington Recreation Ground, this trend was reversed.

The analysis below reports the outputs and forecasts for the first nine weeks of the pilot programme in 2000. The initial success was far greater than anticipated, with demand three times ‘playing space’ capacity, and the numbers were reduced after the first four weeks by absorbing children into other alternative programmes where there was playing space access outside the borough. It is estimated that 1200-1800 young people have participated in WEST activities between 2000 and 2002.

Overview of Nine Week Pilot Program at Paddington Rec August 2000

Outputs (Youths Aged 10-16):

WEST Community Playing Session (10 months to 30.06.2001) 350+
WEST Other Activities (Matches, etc Aug 2000 to Present) 90+
WEST Delivery under New Life for Paddington 2001/2 250 est.
Geographic Catchment Areas:
WEST delivers to all youths that turn up—usually about 80% come from within a 20 minute walking distance of 360% radius of Paddington Recreation Ground, but includes many youths from Swiss Cottage, Cricklewood, Harlesden, and Victoria. .

Distribution of Client Youths by Ethnic Origin:

UK & Continental European 27%
African 20%
Caribbean 16%
Islamic & Middle Eastern 14%
Irish 13%
Asian 6%
South American 4%
100%

More than 70% of the youth & WEST coaching volunteer staff, are comprised of black, minority ethnic, and refuge groups. All come from the local community.

1) Know-how embodied in a formula:
• specifically designed by WEST to deliver a service provision:
• Within existing facility limitations
• Without barriers to access
• Accommodating fluctuations in spot demand
• Efficiently in terms of service output and cost (yield)
• Empowering existing voluntary sector resources
• Investing in People- our customers are WEST - empowered!

2) A large client base (user following):
The success of this formula is evidenced by the:
• Number of repeat users irrespective of climatic conditions or competing events
• Total number of users reached
• Spread of hard-to-reach minorities represented within the user group
• Bonding between youths previously engaged in conflict
• Becoming not just the largest youth organisation, and largest delivery agent for youth football in Westminster, but now also recognised as a leader for unique programme quality.

3) A youth centric organisation;
• Delivered by young people for young people
• Communicating with wide and deep reach into virtual youth networks
• Rapid response times- an event in Feb 2003 attracted 317 youths with 48 hours notice.