Exploring the Liverpool Football Club (LFC) Foundation’s Approach to Youth Intervention via the Onside Programme

The importance of working with children and young people to build pro-social identities and develop positive and constructive young person/practitioner relationships cannot be overstated. This paper seeks to review the benefits of Liverpool Football Club (LFC) Foundation’s approach to youth intervention. It assesses the impact and appreciation of ‘Onside’, an LFC Foundation intervention programme aiming to raise the aspirations and motivations of children and young people while reducing risky behaviours, both inside and outside of school. The programme enables young people to engage through a bespoke curriculum developed and adapted to suit their needs, incorporating both the Prince’s Trust Achieve Award and the Sports Leaders Level 1 Award. By utilising the lens of positive youth development (PYD), this paper presents data and insights into how the programme can act as a protective factor by addressing unmet needs such as adversity and disadvantage, enabling participants to thrive in their communities. This paper includes recommended strategies to facilitate the participation of young people in youth interventions and examines the important role of schools in partnering with football charities to co-create similar projects that prioritise young people, facilitate positive child outcomes and divert from stigma by embracing the principle of pre-emptive intervention.