Inner-city youth get kicks with new soccer program

A new program launched last week by the City of Winnipeg will see more than 600 inner-city children playing soccer twice a week in the hope such activity will reduce their risk of becoming involved with crime.

The Sports Programs in Inner-City Neighbourhoods, or SPIN, is part of the city’s LiveSafe crime prevention policy and is a collaboration between more than 25 community organizations.

At an event to kick off the program, a team led by Mayor Sam Katz and several city councillors played against a team of kids from the program.

“As far as council is concerned, we want to put as much time, energy and money as possible into recreation facilities for our children,” Katz said. “When it comes to soccer, a pair of shoes and a pair of shorts (are all you need) and you can have a good time.”

Dan Prokopchuk, the city’s manager of community development and recreational services, said all the people involved did a tremendous job to get the program up and running with only eight weeks of planning.

Among the challenges the city faced were securing transportation to get teams to and from games and making sure that nutrition would be addressed and the kids would be well-fed.

“We had a lot of partners combining to make this a successful program,” Prokopchuk said.

Winnipeg police Supt. Art Stannard, who played on Katz’s team, said recreation is a key factor in encouraging at-risk youth to stay out of trouble.

“It’s a terrific program,” Stannard said. “It gives the kids a chance to have good, clean fun in a safe environment.”

The program is open to children aged six to 14, and Stannard said even the youngest are at risk without the proper influences.

“Any age is a concern for us, even the really early ages. We’re concerned when kids are exposed to risk or criminal environments,” Stannard said.

One of the organizations fielding a team is Rossbrook House, which has about a dozen children practising every week.

Program manager Audrey Campbell said the players will benefit from learning good sportsmanship and being exposed to other parts of the city.

“Just to get kids familiar with areas outside of Centennial so they’re not scared is a positive,” she said. “We get to go out and explore new areas and meet new people.”

Campbell said anything that encourages the kids to put down their video-game controllers and go outside is a welcome change.

In addition to the twice-weekly games, the teams will participate in special soccer jamborees in July and August.

Prokopchuk said all the stakeholders will sit down in August to evaluate the program and decide what the next step will be. He said the goal is to offer a yet-to-be-determined sport in the winter.