FREE Street Sports for youngsters returns in Northampton

The Northampton Street Sports initiative has been running for the past 15 years, providing children from the ages of eight to 18 with the chance to try their hands at a variety of different sporting activities.

As with virtually all sporting activity, the Covid-19 pandemic saw the events put on hold back in March, but from next Monday (November 2) they will return at five different venues across the town, giving youngsters of all abilities the chance to get out and enjoy multiple sports including football, basketball, street cricket, dodgeball and much more.

The Northampton Street Sports project lead is Aaron Lee, and he can’t wait to get back out there and get youngsters enjoying active sports again.

“We are delighted to be able to bring back the Street Sports sessions,” said Lee,

“We made the difficult decision to suspend the delivery of the project in late March and have been itching to bring it back ever since.

“We have worked tirelessly to ensure the sessions are safe and secure for young people to come and take part and we can’t wait to welcome them all back.”

The sessions have been brought back in a slightly different format to before, with five sessions being delivered every evening Monday to Friday from 5.30 to 7.30pm.

The hour-long sessions are for children aged eight to 18, with the first group between 5.30-6.30pm being those aged eight to 12, and the second from 6.30-7.30pm for those aged 13 to 18.

The sessions are for youngsters of all abilities and they are completely free of charge.

The project has been running now for 15 years and was originally set up to help improve localised communities by providing young people at risk of committing anti-social behaviour (ASB) or entering the criminal justice system with opportunities to participate in structured activity which has a direct route to potential employment.

In March 2020, the project was awarded the sustainability award at the Street Games conference in Liverpool.

The sessions return from the week beginning November 2 (Monday) and are running at the following venues.

Monday: Racecourse Tennis Courts (NN1 4LG) - Street Cricket Session

Tuesday: Blacky More Community Centre & MUGA (NN4 0WP) - Multi-Sport Session

Wednesday: Thorplands MUGA (NN3 8UN) - Multi-Sport Session

Thursday: Far Cotton Community Centre & MUGA (NN4 8NG) - Multi-Sport Session

Friday: St Davids Church & MUGA (NN2 7QB) - Multi-Sport Session

For more details, please go to https://www.trilogyleisure.co.uk/junior-activities/street-sports-street-football/

Participants will be required to book on to sessions due to track and trace and having a capacity for each session.

To make a booking contact Aaron on 07824461862 or email [email protected]. Participants can still drop into sessions but may be turned away if we reach capacity.