Street Leagues Ireland

Friday, 05 June 2009 10:02

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Streetleague-photo

Street Leagues was set up officially as an independent entity in 2005.

Its origins go back to 2003 when Sean Kavanagh, manager of Ireland's Issues Magazine brought a team of homeless lads to the inaugural Homeless World Cup in Austria. Seeing at first hand the benefits that could be accrued from participation in sport he decided that rather than build the lads up for a one-off tournament once a year it would be of greater benefit to have something that they could participate in all year round.

Together with Dublin City Council, a pilot project was set up in 2004 in the inner city. This proved very successful and as a result, in 2005 the league was expanded to cover the greater Dublin area and the league became affiliated to the Football Association of Ireland in its Football For All category. At present there are 13 leagues established across the country.

Our primary target groups are:

The homeless
Drug and alcohol dependant individuals in rehabilitation
Ex-offenders
Long-termed unemployed with identified learning disabilities
Refugee and asylum seekers
Hostels/Accommodation Centres

Goals

To build self-esteem, self-confidence and selfdiscipline.
To develop communication skills and to provide access to lifestyle opportunities in education, skills training and employment.
To imbue in people a sense of self-worth which is fundamental to moving on in life.

Street Leagues is the catalyst that helps achieve this.