GCP United have high hopes for their footballing venture
Grassmarket Community Project (GCP), a partnership between the Grassmarket Mission and Greyfriars Kirk, was founded to work with homeless people, and now extends its services to adults who experience a lack of opportunity and aspirations for different reasons. A group of men hoping to overcome adversity are looking to the beautiful game to boost confidence.
Formed this year, the Grassmarket Community Project's GCP United football team involves 11 dedicated members, each of whom used to be homeless.
The players, who come from various backgrounds, meet weekly in Edinburgh’s Meadows, but are now searching for a sponsor to help them get into an informal league.
The Grassmarket Community Project (GCP), is an organisation that provides support to people facing social exclusion.
Josiah Lockhart, general manager at the GCP, explained how the team came about.
He said: “We were trying to look at different types of physical fitness for the members and we'd experimented with different things - but a lot of the guys are interested in doing football.
“Over the past month and a half they really started coming together. They've now got a volunteer coach and they've started filling in forms to join a league.
“There are 11 guys dedicated to it who come every week and they’re getting better. Lots of groups try to start things like this and they don’t work so I was a bit nervous, especially when we did have a few false starts.
“But now the guys would like to get a sponsor to help them get strips and to get into the league.”
The GCP, a partnership between the Grassmarket Mission and Greyfriars Kirk, was founded to work with homeless people, and now extends its services to adults who experience a lack of opportunity and aspirations for different reasons.
The organisation offers participants a mixture of education programmes, drop-in services, social enterprise and social integration activities, including cookery, woodwork and art, to help them reconnect with society.
While those involved in GCP United are no longer sleeping rough, they are still in vulnerable situations, many staying in hostels.
Alister Logan, who currently lives in a hostel and is also involved in the programme’s Greyfriars Recycling of Wood Project (GRoW), is helping to manage the team.
He said: “These guys all come from different backgrounds, they’ve all got their different stories, different reasons for coming to the project. A lot of them are just building their lives.
“Anyone that wants to play with us can, it’s all about getting the team together. But we do have some extremely talented boys playing for us who’ve not had the opportunity up until now.
“Playing is giving these guys a sense of focus. I just wanted to show to the project that we could make a success of this - I know a lot of these things have fallen apart before, I don’t want to be one of those teams.”
Members of GCP United are now looking forward to following the Homeless World Cup, which is taking place in Paris later this month.
The seven-day tournament involves 64 teams from around the world, with homeless and ex-homeless players recruited through national trials.
Alister, who used to play for the Burghead junior team, added: “We’re going to pin a results table up in here and we’ll update it every day.
“From what I’ve heard talent scouts come along to the astro-turf pitches quite often to find players. I would give up everything I had to go to the Homeless World Cup.”
The Edinburgh-based Homeless World Cup organisation, founded in 2003, aims to help players find acceptance through the representation of their country, and to boost their quests to find accomodation, education or employment.
David Duke, chief executive of Street Soccer Scotland, highlighted how important the game can be to teams like GCP United. He said: "Football can make a huge difference in your life. It gives you natural high, it is inclusive. Everyone is part of the same game, the social exclusion that homeless people feel most of time, does not exist on the pitch."
www.grassmarketcommunityproject.co.uk
Report by: Rebecca Gordon
HOT OFF THE PRESS:
The Homeless World Cup kicks off in Paris on the 21st of August. The venue is stunning, right underneath the Eiffel Tower. This competition has been running now for several years. What many people don’t realise is that this is an Edinburgh based social enterprise with a global reach. The head office of the Homeless World Cup is at Hibernian Football Club and the founder is Edinburgh based social entrepreneur, Mel Young (who also founded the Big Issue in Scotland). More than 90 countries are taking part and 80% of participants in either the World Cup or in Street the Street Soccer programme associated with it move away from the cycle of Homelessness. We at Greyfriars wish the competition all success/
