Football Beyond Borders: 10 years of using sport to change young lives

Over the last decade, the charity has taught thousands of young people life lessons on the pitch and in the classroom

A couple of years after Jasper Kain and Jack Reynolds co-founded the charity Football Beyond Borders they travelled to Salvador, one of the host cities for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Kain was partly there to make a film about football but he also made connections between visitors and locals. “We ran a football tournament, where we paired football fans with families that were living in the favelas,” Kain says. “The idea was to give the locals some income as well as to unite them with fans because they couldn’t access any of the spoils as they didn’t speak any English.”

This was a long way from the early days of FBB, which initially ran weekly football sessions in Kennington Park for 16- to 21-year-olds as well as a homework club at a school in Croydon for a younger age group, 75% of whom are at risk of exclusion. Kain and Reynolds both live in south London, a deep reservoir of football talent that has produced a steady stream of professional players. FBB works with young people from areas of socio-economic disadvantage who are passionate about football but disengaged at school. Football is the charity’s way in. Their ultimate goal is not to produce footballers but to help the young people finish school, and acquire the skills and grades they need as adults. Continue reading...

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