2005 

The project was awarded £150,000 through the Football Foundation. With the support of key partners the project launched and started delivering free and accessible football sessions in 3 areas of the borough. 

 

2006 

Due to the need and popularity of the project we expanded to 6 different areas of the borough. 

In July Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service funded the creation of a Street Football Project in Briar Hill, funding was agreed for 3 years and was targeting activities to reduce arson. This was done in partnership with Northampton Borough Council and Northampton Town Football Club Football in the Community. 

 

2007 

The project increased delivery to 7 areas of the town. We also introduced community sports coaches to deliver the project. 

The project linked the festivals to national initiatives Black history month and ‘kick racism out’ of football with the support locally from the Black Police association. 

 

2008 

Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service published a case study stating that there had been a 69% reduction of deliberate fires in Briar Hill since the Street Football project began (data for August 2005 to July 2006 compared to August 2007 to July 2008). 

Our under 16`s female team took part and won the BBC Your Game festival fair play award and was rewarded with a trip to Anfield to watch Liverpool v Man City. 

The project started to deliver the Junior Football Organisers course, giving young leaders at the project the opportunity to gain a national recognised qualification. 

 

2009 

The Northampton Street Football project signed a service level agreement with National Charity ‘Street Games’ to support the project’s volunteer development programme 

Our female team was invited to take part in the Streetgames tournament in Milton Keynes in which they won. 

 

2010 

The project increased delivery to 11 areas of the town, this was due to additional funds from external organisations such as Barclays Spaces for Sport. 

Young leader Alex Tait from Blackthorn won the prestigious Northamptonshire Children and Young People`s Outstanding Contribution to Sports Award. 

The JFO changed to JFL and project started to deliver these courses on their own (Street Football Officer – Trained to deliver courses). 

Volunteer Charles Mutonga won the Street Games East Midlands young volunteer of the year award. 

Our under 16`s male team took part and won the Streetgames East Midlands regional tournament. 

Compass the statistics and data analysis arm of the Northampton Community Safety Partnership produced a report that, demonstrated the impact of the project on reduction of ASB in a number of areas. 

 

2011 

Northamptonshire County Council funded the Northampton Street Football Project to continue the delivery in the existing areas of the town. 

Volunteer Charles Mutonga was shortlisted for the Northamptonshire Young People of the Year awards (YOPEY). He also became a member of the Street Games National Young Advisory Panel 

Volunteer Dean Villette was shortlisted for Northampton Leisure Trust Sports Awards Volunteer of the Year 

 

2012 

The Northampton Street Project expanded to 14 sites due to funding through the Northampton Community Safety Partnership and Northamptonshire Police. Basketball sessions were also introduced to support the reduction of ASB. Times of sessions were altered due to this, giving more opportunities to take part in sport. 

The project gained the inspired by London 2012 mark, with the coaches and volunteers getting the once in a lifetime opportunity to attend the Olympics games and watch a football match at Wembley Stadium. 

 

2013 

Northampton Community Safety Partnership published a report based on data analysis and information gathered from the Northampton Street Football Project. Key findings were that overall youth related crime was down. 

Volunteer Abdulhalim Abdallad won the young black achievers award (sports category) at the Zimwomen Awards 2013 

Both Dean Villette and Abdulhalim Abdallad reached the milestone of 100 hrs of volunteering at the Northampton Street Football Project as part of the Sport and Play volunteer recognition scheme 

Working in partnership with NAYC and funded by a local cllr the project delivered music session as part of the weekly programme in the Standerns Barn area of the town 

Thanks to funders Barclays Spaces for Sport, the Project had visits from England international cricket player Graeme Swain and the Barclays Premier League Trophy. The Project was also given tickets to the APT event in London where only the world top 10 tennis players compete 

This year has also seen the project record throughput of attendances at the project of 13,000 

 

2014 

The project took 15 coaches, volunteers and external partners to visit St Georges Park in September 2014. The coaches were given a tour of the FA’s home of football development and coaches at St George’s Park gave a master class coaching seminar to the project coaches. They were also on hand to carry out a Q&A and allowed ourselves to utilise the facilities. 

We signed a Service Level Agreement with Northampton Town Football Club, this was to mutually support one another and young people who participate in football locally. Coaches from NTFC will provide master classes for our coaches and Talent ID our participants. 

The project delivered a JFL training course for 12 young leaders from Northampton, upskilling them with a nationally recognised qualification. The young leaders then supported the delivery of the project at weekly sessions and festivals. 

Coach Development – The project support the coach development of 6 local volunteers by supporting them with places on the FA level one coaching qualification. 

In partnership with the Golf Foundation we hosted a Golf training course for 12 local volunteers in ‘Street Golf’. Resources was then given to the project to deliver ‘Street Golf’ as part of our wider programme with links created to local clubs. 

We signed a 3 year contract with Street Games to deliver 3 door Step Sports Clubs across Northampton - Northampton South - Briar Hill, Far Cotton, Camp Hill. Northampton East - Thorplands, Rillwood Court, Eastfield, Bellinge. Northampton Central - The Racecourse, Victoria Park, Kings Heath, Spencer. 

 

2015 

Local volunteer Alex Wilson was recognised for his commitment to volunteering by scooping the Northampton Leisure Trust Volunteer of the Year award and winning the Young Leader of the Year award at the prestigious Sports Awards. Alex then subsequently was recognised at the County Sports Awards by finishing a credible runner up in the Young Leader category 

Local coach and volunteer David Sibanda was also recognised for his commitment to the project by winning the ‘Young Black Achiever’ award at the Zimwomen awards. He was also runner up in the pride of Northamptonshire awards which recognises young volunteers across and their commitment across the county. 

A memorandum of understanding was signed with FFA to take over the running of the Racecourse sessions. FFA now kindly deliver session on behalf of the project with the project providing support to them and their coaches. 

The project created a new partnership with the Police Community Alcohol Partnership (CAP). CAP have supported the project with resources to deliver session in the Kingsthorpe St Davids area of the town 

Through our national partner Street Games we trained 7 volunteers and coaches on the UKCC Level 2 multisports course, this enabled capacity building and increased the support available to the project. 

For more information about the Northampton Street Football Project please contact Northampton Leisure Trust's Street Football Officer Gavin Lewis on 01604 838458. 

Street Football Launch Picture 2 

 

2016 

2016 was another successful year for the Street Sports project in Northampton. A complete overhaul of staff in mid-2016 saw 9 new activators join the Street Sports squad. This year we saw some great success both on and off the MUGA. James Richardson who was previously a participant joined us as a volunteer and completed over 250 hours of voluntary work which lead to him being nominated as Volunteer of the Year for the Northampton Sports Awards and the Street Games National Awards. Due to his hard work and dedication James was also given the opportunity to complete his FA level one coaching qualification, which he did successfully and will now be joining us as an activator. 

 

Alex Wilson and Chris Brown were also nominated for the Volunteer of the Year Award for the Street Games National Awards and the Northampton Sports Awards. 

 

This year also marked the end of an era for the Street Sports project as long standing Sport Development Officer and project co-coordinator Gavin Lewis left the organisation. Gavin managed the project from its original launch but a late bid in the summer transfer window from Derby County FC saw him take his talents closer to home. We wish Gav all the best. 

 

Another year goes on and Northampton Street Sports is looking forward to providing doorstep sports opportunities to the young people of Northampton for another year. Please don’t forget the dates of our Street Football Tournaments, check out our Facebook page and keep an eye out on twitter for important information! For more information about Northampton Street Sports please contact new Sport Delivery Development Officer Johnny Yates on 01604 837713 

 

2017 

Northampton Street Sports was successful again this year with winning two National awards. Coach David Sibanda was named Coach of the Year 2017 for his amazing work he has done with young people across our project. Also the project was awarded the Matt Kendal Award, an award given to a programme with outstanding youth development. 

 

This year the project grew by adding a new strand to the programme. Prospects, a local employability group partnered with the project to run the Sports Employability course. A chance for NEET (Not in Education or Employment Teenagers) young people to learn about coaching while developing the skills needed to become employable. 

 

2018 

Northampton Street Sports Project has had another successful year. We have encouraged over 400 young people get involved in the project. In 2018 saw the project further develop and create further strands to its already comprehensive programme. We secured funding to develop our Sports Employability Programme which has helped now over 50 young people develop their careers and opportunities to become employed. 

 

In 2018 the project was shortlisted for a numerus amount of awards. The biggest success came when Northampton Leisure Trust won the 2018 UK Active Award. The Street Sports Project was an integral part of the application. Other shortlisted awards consist of Street Games ‘Matt Kendal Award’, ‘Funding for the Future’ and ‘Young coach of the Year’. Over 1000 different project ran across the UK and unfortunately in 2018 we finished runners up in each category. We are looking forward to applying again for this awards in 2019. 

 

In 2018 we were informed that the project had been awarded funding from the Big Lottery, this funding will support all aspects and new developing parts of the programme for the next three years. This is exciting times for the Street Sports Programme in Northampton. For more information regarding our programme contact project lead Aaron Lee through the following details. 

 

“2020 has been a year of highs and lows for the Street Sports Project. April 2020 we had to suspend the Street Sports Project for the first time in its existence due to the national lockdown which was placed upon us by the government. 

 

May 2020 we were delighted to find out that we won the sustainability award at the Street Games conference. This award demonstrated the hard work by everyone involved in the project to deliver this 50 weeks over the year Monday-Friday and we couldn’t have been prouder to be acknowledge for that work with this award. 

 

November 2020 was the month when the Street Sports project officially re-launched. Brought back in a slightly different format we are now delivering in 5 different areas of Northampton and are looking to expand back to our original 11 sites in 2021.