Nottingham charity helping to change young people's lives through sport
ITV News Central's Charlotte Cross reports.
A Nottingham-based charity set up by a young entrepreneur is helping thousands of vulnerable young people across the county, by giving them a safe space to go.
"Support Through Sport" is centred around diverting young people away from crime, through running football and boxing sessions.
It was founded by Tranai Todds from Nottingham when he was just 17.
"Young people are the future"
It started when the charity's founder saw for himself how beneficial sport was in his own life.
He says "Sport was a really powerful tool for me and it gave me the protective factors to keep me away from negative influences and it kept me on the straight and narrow.
"The power that sport has for young people is immense".
"Young face lots of complex challenges and even navigating certain systems at time can be difficult so we have to provide support to them when they need them.
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"Sport is a great hook to allow us to introduce young people to positive role models".
The charity aims to help young people living in disadvantaged areas of the county.
Winning the award spurred Tranai in 2021 to stand in front of the Police and Crime Commissioner, where he successfully pitched his business idea.
He was then given £10,000 to test his business as a pilot project and then a further £30,000 to launch Support Through Sport.
Mentoring
Shareef Khan is a targeted mentor at Support Through Sport and talks about how his own experiences inspired him to become a mentor.
The charity offers targeted mentoring on a referral-only basis with young people for young people, aged between 8-18.
They receives referrals from the youth justice service, social care and schools. They work on a one-to-one basis with people, on issues like school attendance and behaviours in the school or in the community.
The mentoring is delivered by people with direct experience of the youth criminal justice system and is designed to help educate them on what this is like and why a better path is available.
"I did end up going down the wrong path"
Shareef said "Without having a role model, I started going through the wrong path, and got into trouble at school and got expelled from primary and then secondary school.
"From my past experience and not having the right things to guide me back, I did end up going down the wrong path, gang crime, substance abuse, alcohol misuse and I was surrounded by the wrong people.
"It got quite close to prison time and I decided I need to go down a different path.
"I spent some time in the youth offending team and I had a great mentor but my contact time with them was limited and was only for a couple of hours a week.
"Seeing some of the young people that I have supported two years down the line is so rewarding."
Shareef spoke about a young person who he helped who wasn't showing up to school - it was the first ever person he worked with.
"We set a target together with the school and the young person ended up smashing their target.
"It was amazing to help the young person by giving them a structured routine over time, it was something that he could be proud of as he proved himself and then he was able to go back to mainstream lessons."
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