As part of our work with FASTN we are part of a project funded by The Community University Partnership Initiative (CUPI) which “supports community organisations (including community businesses, charities, social enterprises, and voluntary organisations) and university researchers to create trusting and useful research collaborations which benefit all the partners involved.”
An initial grant allowed us to work with Sport Birmingham and Birmingham City University to develop a project around “engaging young men from disadvantaged circumstances in Sports-Driven programmes to enhance relationship skills, including for intimate relationships.”
The next stage, if funded, will explore perceptions of young people excluded or on the brink of exclusion from formal education to enhance relationship skills through sports-driven mentoring programmes.
This small-scale research will enhance academic and practical understanding of relationship skills development amongst young people excluded from formal education in Birmingham and engaged in Sport Birmingham’s work with schools, the role of mentoring in this development, and deepen understanding of key features needed to bring this change to inform nationwide delivery of relationship and sex education through schools.