Shpresa Programme and Sports
Shpresa Programme promotes an active life as one of the best ways to be healthy and happy. All projects have this element built within them, encouraging physical activity and sports, especially for those groups who have more obstacles to deal with. We organise activities for groups like girls, seniors, and those who relatively struggle with health or are isolated.
A number of initiatives have already become commonplace at Shpresa:
Walk Talk Watch – which is an intergenerational project that aims to create closer connections between people over 55 who have mental health problems, with local young people that have no friends, or those who want to learn English, be more active by organizing various trips, etc. This summer these trips have been through different parks in London, discovering different monuments, the heritage of different boroughs, flora, and fauna, etc.
Girls Sports Leadership: This project aims to encourage girls aged 11+ not only to enjoy sports but also to promote these sports in their community by recruiting sports champions who organize various sporting events, it is worth mentioning this year’s sports activity organized in Croydon, in cooperation with the police team and that of the CVA.
"We want to have more of such collaborations": - said Christine from the CVA: - "wherever there is communication, there is understanding"
Over the summer London Youth organized basketball training for the sports leadership girls who are already planning to organize weekly basketball sessions in various parks.
New Sports and Us – aims at pieces of training for sports which are not common for the Albanian community, in recent years we have introduced new sports to our young people such as wallball, fencing, etc., this year the new sport was Golf. While sports such as basketball, volleyball, football, tennis take place every week at Shpresa.
After 6 golf sessions organized at Shpresa Programme, the Golf Festival was a brilliant way to spend a beautiful and different day for the many unaccompanied young people that golf engaged. The program provides a platform for children and young people to experiment and introduce themselves to the sport of golf by helping them develop life skills in a fun and meaningful way. The festival was conceived as a competition between different participating groups where children and young people had access to a golfing field and the right tools to play golf. The young people were also led by professional golf teachers.
