Positive Futures

The Community Sport & Wellbeing Team, along with their partners, create and deliver informative, local, accessible and affordable activities to engage children and young people - often in deprived estates or targeted communities.

Working with partners such as Gwent Police, the Office of the Police & Crime Commissioner for Gwent, Newport City Council (Resilient Communities, Youth Services, Neighbourhood Hubs, Social Services, Youth Justice Service, Preventions, Education, Safeguarding), Registered Social Landlords, Sport Wales, Safer Gwent, One Newport Public Service Board, and UK organisations and networks such as Active Communities Network, Street Games UK, Sport for Development Coalition (Connect Sport), Alliance of Sport, and many more - our trained role models (sports coordinators, sports coaches, and volunteers) provide sport and physical activity opportunities to engage young people and encourage them to take part - often diverting them away from the potential of peer pressure and anti-social behaviour, or even worse serious organised crime.

Positive Futures

Positive Futures is a sport based social inclusion programme that has been delivered in Newport for the past 14 years. The programme uses sport as a tool to engage young people, predominantly aged 10-19 years, within our communities in local community facilities, and through a referral process from a range of partnership agencies. 

The programme is funded by the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for (OPCC) for Gwent along with many other partners such as One Newport, Sport Wales, Welsh Government, and local authorities contributing funds through services/programmes of funding where they need support to engage young people and inspire them to achieve and improve their lives (e.g. preventions, resilient communities, youth services, social services, and education).

Positive Futures has grown in reach significantly in the past 6 years, and now operates across Gwent and the South East Wales Region with Caerphilly, Torfaen, Monmouthshire and Blaenau Gwent local authorities in both sports development or youth services teams or mixed.  The lead, innovation, and national and UK wide links and further development come from Newport Live as the host and hub for the programme with great support from operational leads in all of the four other local authorities.  Governance is provided also by the OPCC and Safer Gwent of which Newport Live lead with the Senior Positive Futures Development Officer for Gwent.

Read about our latest project Levelling the Playing Field

News story - Levelling the Playing Field joins unique partnership using sport to support children in Newport

Read our case study for our Positive Futures work in Summer 2020

News story - Newport Inclusion Cohesion Shield brings young people together

Alliance of Sport in Criminal Justice Report - New AoS report outlines model for effective partnership working in sport and criminal justice

Diversionary Sport and Youth Engagement - Friday Night Projects

Evening Diversionary Sport and Youth Engagement sessions, clubs and activities as well as Friday Night Projects are delivered throughout the City of Newport and across Gwent, usually between 5pm and 9pm, after school and into the evening, to ensure young people can take part in positive activities, be engaged and inspired, and have opportunities to be supported, learn, become volunteers, and further develop as citizens. Current sessions in Newport are delivered in areas identified via the One Newport Community Safety and ASB Theme groups, linked to Safer Newport and Safer Gwent.     

Primary School Early Intervention Youth Project

A primary school intervention project has been established for Year 6 pupils who are identified by the school as needing support and signposting to diversionary activity. Alway Primary School and Tredegar Park Primary School have taken part in the programme with pupils enjoying educational workshops and sports activities.

Regional Delivery 

The Positive Futures programme that has been delivered in Newport since 2002 is now developed across the region so there are projects throughout the Gwent region. Blaenau Gwent, Caerphilly, Torfaen and Monmouthshire all have projects that support young people living in areas of deprivation and those referred in to receive additional support. Projects work in partnership with the Police to provide sport-based delivery for young people who have been identified as needing diversion or in areas that have high ASB/Crime rates.