(7 January 2025 – The Voice Online UK)
Thru Life partnered with the Security Forces United FC in St Kitts & Nevis to deliver their 2nd Annual Crime Intervention Summer football camp, writes Vlad Andrejevic.
The initiative was created to use football as a tool to change the lives of youth who may be at risk of getting involved in crime and anti-social behaviour. With coaches brought in from the UK and US to mentor over 300 young people over the course of two weeks, this summer’s camp was a resounding success.
Richard Allicock, director of Thru Life, explained in an interview with Voice Online that it had long been one of his goals “to take sports prevention and crime prevention work to the Islands of the Caribbean”, something that he had started in his days working with Tottenham Hotspur when he managed to do some work in Anguilla.
Security Forces FC, a football club run by the police in St Kitts & Nevis, had already run a summer camp before Richard had got involved. “They call it the second annual but for me this wasn’t a second annual, this was actually the launch of Thru Life going out to do this particular piece of work because the previous year was like a pilot for them.
“The focus was around increasing awareness of young people getting into sports; utilising it as an anti-social behaviour tool mechanism so they do not get caught up in any negative behaviours. In St Kitts, there is unfortunately a lot of crime going on in terms of murder.”
We decided to link up with the security forces out there through the government to be able to deliver a pronounced piece of work for young people
With the help of long-time collaborator Beresford Mack, who Richard points to as being integral in the set-up, Thru life joined the initiative to deliver this program. They reached out to the island’s government who were very supportive of their work and helped them officialise the program.
With planning starting as early as October for the camp in July, they took over 30 bags of equipment and brought across 15 staff members from professional clubs from different backgrounds to help set up the camp.
“We decided to link up with the security forces out there through the government to be able to deliver a pronounced piece of work for young people,” Richard explained. “Kids came from local communities, schools, churches and others, all vetted through our partners on the island.”
The result was a memorable camp in which, through football, they were able to inspire hundreds of young people whilst also making important inroads in tackling social problems faced on the island.
“It’s not just about football, it’s about what kind of interventions are we putting in place to support these individuals because we can go there for two weeks to do a program and leave, however, my thing was I am not going to come for two weeks and then just leave.” said Richard.
“I need to know what are we doing beyond that because I won’t put my name and my brand to something that’s just a drop in the ocean token gesture and then all of a sudden you lose the substance.
“We delivered this program, and off the back of it, they’ve now been able to secure a project to move forward after we’ve left where once a week there is a prevention program through sport. We have also highlighted three or four young children from St Kitts that the government are paying for to fly over to the UK for us to do a piece of work with them – so we are always looking for the longevity of the work we are doing.”
For Richard, this is just the start of a five-year plan where they also want to grow the female game – they will bring equally qualified female coaches to next year’s program, starting the process in February to “sustain and maintain the momentum” and be able to transition to having coaches there rather than needing to bring them over.
“We’ve had about 4/5 other islands reach out to us because they now want to be involved in this initiative because they can see the effect it is having. My focus is to be embedded in some of the other islands interlinking with each other and having tournaments and crossing over work they are doing.”
We are always looking for the longevity of the work we are doing
One of the key elements for the longevity that Richard strives for is that they want to offer coaching in a multitude of skills within football and wider sport outside of being a professional athlete, whether that’s in media, fashion, or business to name a few.
“We’re not talking about just becoming professional footballers, we are talking about other means within sports. There are opportunities for them to grow, and then they can return to the Caribbean islands themselves and educate the next generation so there is a domino effect,” summarised Richard.
“We have access to so many different realms of work – for us to start this process is just hooking people into understanding what sports can do through knowledge and understanding and then we can start to build a framework from which to move forward.”
To find out more about this programme visit here.
