SCotland

STREET SOCCER SCOTLAND

Street Soccer Scotland is a charity and non-profit social enterprise that delivers a range of football-related services to socially disadvantaged adults and young people across Scotland.

It was founded in March 2009 by former Homeless World Cup Scotland player, David Duke.

Inspired by David’s personal experience of how sport, and in particular football, can be the catalyst for positive social change, Street Soccer Scotland aim to provide a unique response to the social disadvantage prevalent in Scottish society.

They provide a wide range of free football sessions and football themed education through their own nationally accredited qualifications and other activities in main cities across Scotland. They have begun increasing their reach through introducing a Network Manager to work with other organisations in smaller cities and towns.

Ambassadors for the organisation include Sir Alex Ferguson and Liverpool and Scotland player Andy Robertson.

ORGANISATION DETAILS

PARTICIPANTS

Their programmes are open to adults over 16 (no upper limit), males and females, who are disadvantaged or socially excluded from society due to their circumstances. They also run a programme for youths 12 – 16.

LOCATIONS

Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, Aberdeen, and increasing reach to smaller cities and towns.

Country statistics

13 out of 189 in Human Development Index rating
(UNDP, 2019) [United Kingdom]

Average annual salary per person $38, 950 (World Bank, 2021) [United Kingdom]

Between 2020-2021 A household in scotland lost their home every 19 minutes (Shelter Scotland, 2021).

Part of the United Kingdom, Scotland has a population 5.4 million (Scotland, 2022). The majority of Scotland’s population (71%) live in urban areas (National Records of Scotland, 2019). Capital city, Edinburgh had a population of 542,599 in 2021 (World Population Review, 2021).

Between 2020-2021 there were 33,792 homeless applications and 27,571 households assessed as homeless, this equates to a household losing their home every 19 minutes.

Of the number assessed as homeless from 2020-2021, this included 11,804 children. The largest demographic of homeless applications came from single males at 46% between the ages of 25-34, the next largest group was males between the ages of 35-49 years old.

There are many reasons why someone can become homeless, they include dispute with household/non-violent relationship breakdown, asked to leave accommodation, dispute with household (violent or abusive), to name a few.

As of 2019 there were 130,000 households on waiting lists for housing with their local authority (Shelter Scotland, 2021).

23% of people assessed as homeless or potentially homeless in 2019-2020 were under 24 (Scottish Government, 2020).

In March 2021 the number of households in temporary accommodation was above 13,000, well above the previous peak of 11,665 the year before. Homelessness has been a policy priority with the Scottish government for the 5 years before the COVID-19 pandemic and they are continue to implement their plans (Crisis, 2021).