I spent last week in Birmingham visiting Start Again CIC – an organisation that provides a wide range of activities to engage young people from the local area and support them with decisions, changes and issues during an uncertain time in their life.

The original premise of Start Again used football as an engagement tool to encourage young people from the local community to participate, learning along the way lessons in teamwork and communication as well as about healthy lifestyles.  Start Again has since expanded into other sports (netball and yoga) and other activities (music) – as well as being due to open a semi-supported housing project in the next few months.  All of these streams aim to share the same ethos and atmosphere of openness and equality.

I spent the bulk of my time in Birmingham at the Powerleague pitches in Aston, where the football projects are run from.  I observed a variety of different groups of individuals accessing the Start Again scheme – from an open session where anyone could come along, to a closed session where clients from housing associations and the Early Intervention Service were participating.  I also observed a session of the Start Again/Development Keys ‘Winning Ways’ programme, consisting of 16-18 year olds from a local training centre. This again used football as the engagement tool, but taught more formal connections between behaviour and football inside the clubhouse, before the physical training began.  The ethos amongst all groups was the same, though, and it was a passion for playing the game.  As my predecessor David had reported last year, the footballers were effectively communicating and ‘playing fair’ throughout.  The impact of the Start Again value set was especially apparent during the Winning Ways session where lessons from the classroom were being played out clearly on the pitch.

As well as interviewing coaches, players and other staff at the Powerleague pitches, I also spent some time speaking to individuals with an external perspective of Start Again.  These included staff members from the EIS, supported housing agencies and the workers at the PCT.  These, combined with the internal perspectives of individuals who had been involved with the service for varying lengths of time, provided me with a rounded viewpoint on Start Again, how it has changed in the past year, and how it is continuing to change to fit in with future need.

I did not get the chance to attend any of the women’s only groups which is something that I am very keen to do in order to better assess the difference between programmes.  I will therefore be returning to Birmingham one Friday in February.  If anyone associated with Start Again would like to talk to me about their experience of the organisation, then please contact me on hannah.reidy@kcl.ac.uk and we can arrange a meeting.

In the meantime, the findings from this round of fieldwork from Start Again has allowed us to further refine the intervention model. This will ensure that it will fit with an organisation very different from BlueSCI in Manchester, by digging down to the essence of the process.

Thank you very much to everyone at Start Again for making me feel so welcome – and unobtrusive – last week.  I am aware that a female standing trying to remember the offside rule is not the most normal sight at the Powerleague pitches, but people carried on regardless! You allowed me to gain some really valuable insight into how Start Again’s processes work, and we look forward to sharing the results with you all soon.

Next week I will be going to visit the Start Again project based in Birmingham to complete the next round of fieldwork at this organisation.  Start Again uses sports as well as other activities to bring young people together in the Birmingham area.

As with BlueSCI, I will be hoping to catch up with interviewees from the last round of fieldwork to examine how they have moved through the organisation.  I will also spend time chatting to individuals who are associated with Start Again such as other linked organisations, referrers, and funding commissioners, to understand the project from a external perspective.

I will be getting involved with some of the activity sessions to gain an insider view of how the sessions work – apologies now for my netballing skills…!

More on the research at Start Again when I get up there, but here is a link to their website for further information on the organisation…

http://www.start-again.co.uk/

This week I spent Monday to Wednesday with BlueSCI.  On Monday I visited the Sale Waterside Arts Centre to explore the Digital Organics Exhibition created by Seed Studios.  The works were all incredibly creative and it was great to be able to see the input of so many talented individuals from BlueSCI in one place.

On Tuesday, I visited the Partington Library and Wellbeing Centre – the newest member of the BlueSCI family.  This place has a very different feel to the Old Trafford building – it seems like more of a community centre with lots of links out to local organisations, as against Old Trafford which holds the bulk of its resources on site.  It was very useful talking to the people who access Partington BlueSCI, establishing how they use the service and how it is developing since it opened earlier in the year. There were some really interesting contrasts between the two centres, however a lot of the BlueSCI ethos seems to be shared – and adapted – to suit both environments.

On Wednesday, it was women’s day at Old Trafford BlueSCI.  I knitted and nattered with the group in the cafe, and had the chance to talk to lots of people who use the service on a less formal level – for example just coming in to go on the computers or to grab lunch.  This gave me a good perception of the range of different ways that different people engage with BlueSCI, from those who come in every day, volunteer, and get fully involved to those who find BlueSCI’s value in the facilities that it offers or the friendships that it allows them to form.

I have returned to London with a lot of leads to follow up and material to look through.  This includes talking to people who work in the agencies and organisations that link with BlueSCI, to understand external perceptions. I do feel that I am getting to the point where I have a very full picture of BlueSCI, and this will be reflected in changes to the intervention model which will be displayed on this blog for your comments in the coming weeks.

Thank you to all of you at BlueSCI who were so very helpful during my time up with you!

I (Hannah) braved the hail-storms, wind and rain and spent the early part of this week in Manchester, at the Old Trafford centre of BlueSCI.  I talked to lots of people there to deepen my understanding of the data that we have already collected there, and was lucky enough to also be able to get involved with a few groups (thank you to all of you who were so inclusive in the Monday craft and Tuesday writing groups!). 

Everyone who I spoke to has been incredibly useful, with lots of interesting takes on my questions which will definitely serve to refine our intervention further.  I particularly focussed on examining the process of moving people that access the service on to new opportunities, which is integral to the success of a setup like BlueSCI. 

 This week’s visit was really an exploratory one for me, getting a feel for the centre and talking to as many different people as possible. I will be returning next week from Monday to Wednesday to visit the new branch out at Partington, as well as having a look at the much talked-about Digital Organics exhibition at Sale Waterside (see the link below).

http://www.bluesci.org.uk/?s=digital+organic

If anyone would like to talk to me about their views of BlueSCI whilst I am up with you all next week, then please get in touch via this blog as it would be great to hear your views. I have come back to the Big Smoke much more familiar with BlueSCI (and proudly sporting a gorgeous rose corsage made in the craft group!), and am very much looking forward to carrying on with the research there next week.  BlueSCI, you brightened up my week!