2:47pm Thursday 9th July 2009
By Amanda Williams
A GIRLS’ club has been hosting weekly footballing sessions to tackle the problems of obesity, bullying and antisocial behaviour.
The Barton Girls and Young Women Group was set up in 2007, after it was decided there was little for girls on the estate to do.
Now two years on and the group has gone from strength to strength, with 19 of their members even getting a GCSE equivalent for their footballing skills.
Youth leader Melanie Jewell, 26, grew up on the estate and said she knew only too well how things could be for girls in Barton.
She said: “After talking to the girls and hearing how much they wanted something to do I decided to set up the group.
“To be honest when I was growing up round here I would have liked something similar.
“Some boys would say to me ‘oh you can’t be into football or you can’t be into music, just because you’re a girl’. The oppression girls get from boys sometimes round here made me want to do something different for them and give them a place of their own.
”Now we are helping them out with all sorts of things, their behaviour, things like weight issues, and bullying.”
With the help of fellow youth worker and football coach Adam French, Ms Jewell launched the girls’ football team which now attracts scores of girls at its weekly sessions.
Despite not yet having their own kit the group have been training hard and 19 of them have achieved an AQA in five-a side-football and are ready for the beginning of the league.
Last month the group was handed an award by former Olympic hurdler, Kriss Akabusi, for its success in turning girls lives around.
Keen footballer and Manchester United fan Celeste Prytherch, 16, from Stowford Road, agreed the group had helped a lot of the girls stay out of trouble.
She added: “We haven’t got anything really round here for us to do. I have changed since I joined. I used to get in trouble all the time, now I don’t.
“This give us something to do rather than stand around on the streets or outside the shop.”
awilliams@oxfordmail.co.uk
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