basketballscotland’s Social Impact Programme | Case Study
John’s Story
This young person is anonymous but will be called John for the sake of this case study.
John comes from a broken home. His Mum and Dad are no longer together and there is a clear divide in parenting approaches. John lives with his Mum full time and has sporadic visits with his Dad. The sporadic visits with his Dad cause John to crave male attention, resulting in an identity crisis and leaving him unsure of where he fits in or how he should behave.
The ‘hard man’ persona of his father is an attitude John attempts to adopt. However, these behaviours conflict with his core beliefs and cause John to ‘act out’ and increasingly get ‘into bother’ in both the wider community and in school.
John has struggled to find a core group of positive friends, possibly as a result of the character he pretends to be. He often gets caught up in groups who aren’t looking out for him or supporting him. They are winding him up, encouraging bad decisions and ultimately lead John into trouble.
This trouble has led to several encounters with the police; for disorderly behaviour, underage drinking and being caught with illegal substances in school. John is ashamed of his roots and has an unpleasant stigma and outlook on coming from Easterhouse.
He believes “no one successful ever comes out of here, it’s just full of rubbish and people on the dole.” This is a future John has been very much willing to accept, despite both Mum and Dad being employed and wanting the best for him. The challenges identified made John a perfect candidate for the basketballscotland CashBack School of Basketball programme.
Our local Basketball Social Impact Officer met John over a year ago, and since meeting they have been on an up and down path. Going through phases of exceptionally positive behaviours, to the extreme negatives. Managing his behaviours to a consistent level is very difficult.
The Basketball Social Impact Officer had a one-to-one intervention with John before the 2021 summer holidays, due to reports of him being involved in criminal activity. The intervention involved supporting John to plan other activities to undertake, including our basketball sessions, which would allow him to be the best version of himself. John then attended our joint summer programme with another local organisation called FARE, and participated in absolute everything we had on offer, every single week.
John enthused: ”If I come here my Mum will have peace of mind that I’m not getting up to anything and it means I’m not tempted to do anything bad if I’m not kicking about the streets”
This was an exceptional breakthrough for John, resulting in no involvement in illegal activity throughout the summer months. A first for a while and a huge step in the right direction.
John continues to be committed to the programme. With a definite improvement in behaviour, he is also more self-aware and the consequences of his own actions.
As a consequence of the programme, he has managed to form a more stable group of friends, surrounding himself in like-minded people. These friends appear to be much more supportive, encouraging and genuinely concerned for his welfare.
Our Basketball Social Impact Officer has arranged other opportunities for him within the school to encourage positive behaviours. John has been enrolled in a transition college course, aiming to give him a host of college experiences for him to decipher a path he may want to take when leaving school in the next few years.
The work of the CashBack School of Basketball programme has been vital, providing important support for John and steering him in a new positive destination.
