Tees Valley Sport are committed to encouraging more people from under-represented groups to play sport and become physically active and have worked with a small community group in Middlesbrough on a variety of sport and physical activity projects that have had a huge impact.
TS1 works with people from all backgrounds in particular those from the BaME (Black and minority ethnic communities). Football tournaments are one of the many projects set up to get people to take part in some type of physical exercise, as recent data suggests that the Tees Valley currently has over 129,000 people aged over 16 who are physically inactive.
One of the many people looking to change this is TS1 member and local community sports leader Gohar Ihrsan, who explained the objectives of their work in Middlesbrough.
He said:
“We have a real passion and desire to get people especially youngster’s involved in sport and fitness, however if we also spot talent we want to be able to give them a platform to compete and progress. Our programmes have been incredibly popular and we regularly see 300 0r 400 people taking part in weekly activities”
The community group based in the heart of Middlesbrough, recently held a men’s football tournament in order to bring the local community closer. Thirty two teams entered the football competition from multiple backgrounds. Locally teams from the Tees Valley competed, along with guest teams from Newcastle and Sunderland. Several teams comprised players from various nations such as Sri Lanka and Eritrea.
Rather than a straight knockout competition, the structure consisted of four leagues with eight teams, allowing participants to play a minimum of seven games during the day. Jamia FC eventually defeated Abbey’s Pizza 4-1 in a high scoring final.
All proceeds went to the One Ummah organisation, an Islamic charity that has worked closely with people effected by the Syrian conflict.
TS1 also help engage people in a range of different activities such as swimming, boxing, volleyball and archery, although due to its popularity football is the main sport the organisation is involved in. Due to the successes of previous projects, one of which now sees 150 children playing organised football, the group are now working with the North Riding FA to introduce greater participation in adult football. Gohar has been asked to sit on an Inclusion Advisory Group by the FA following the success of his work in Middlesbrough. They have recently established a BaME football league with the support of the North Riding FA.
Future plans are set to include a record breaking event with a tournament’s consisting of 100 teams lined up for next summer’s charity event. This will see teams from around the country compete in what will be one of the largest community football tournaments held in the UK to date.
However all the good work undertaken by TS1 would not be possible without the support of other organisations, when asked about the effect Tees Valley Sport has had on their projects Gohar said:
“Tees Valley Sport has been fantastic in assisting and supporting the programme we have established. They have been inspirational with our members and have helped us to build a strong foundation within our own organisation in terms of governance, signposting and set up. Without that support we could not have achieved what we have today, once we started working with them our direction has only gone upwards, they have been pivotal.”
TSI: are now working with Tees Valley Community Foundation and Sported to help them build more capacity and continue to encourage local people to lead more active and healthy lifestyles. They have recently secured funding through the Community Foundation to employ a sports development officer to help establish now activity programmes and help reach a wider audience. You can follow their great work via Facebook at
https://www.facebook.com/ts1.org.uk/