On Friday 16 August, Lib Peck, Director of the Violence Reduction Unit attended CACT’s Summer Activities programme.
The Summer Activities programme offers free football coaching sessions to young people aged 11-17 in South East London. The session Lib visited saw CACT mentors delivered a county lines/exploitation workshop to 28 young people, followed by a football tournament organised by CACT coaches.
At the beginning of the session, CACT Connect Mentors gave a workshop on county lines exploitation, explaining to young people what county lines is and giving them advice on how to deal with situations.
The Connect programme is funded by the Mayor of London’s Young Londoners Fund and is a 10-week programme where CACT mentors provide intensive one-to-one mentoring to build resilience and a programme of positive, diversionary activities.
Impressed with CACT’s work, Lib said:
“It was great to come down and listen to the really good work that CACT is doing in working with young people. The presenters gave very, very relatable and very emotional contributions that you could see had an impact on the young people.
“This initiative is very rooted in the community. Really presenting real life and showing people there is a huge opportunity for them as young people to grasp their full potential, I think, is incredibly important and valuable.
“I grew up in Bexleyheath so Charlton is my nearest club. I really strongly believe in neighbourhood and community… it makes me feel very proud.”
David James, CACT’s Director of Education & Sport, said:
“It was fantastic to have Lib Peck and colleagues from the Mayor’s Office visit CACT’s provision at the Barnfield Community Centre. These popular sessions use football as the hook to engage with young people, whilst providing wrap around support, information and guidance linked to CACT’s wider portfolio of work at the heart of the community.
“Despite the summer sessions finishing at the end of August, engagement with these participants will continue long term via CACT’s Young Londoners Connect Project, Traineeships, Post 16 Academy and the Universal Youth Service for Greenwich.”