Beeston Hockey Club

Creating community links

This partnership between Beeston Hockey Club and Belong Nottingham shows how both organisations offer positive experiences to the participants involved and how they have learned about recognising and overcoming barriers.

The video begins with a shot of an empty grass sports field.

There are football goalposts, as well as some trees on the right of the screen and floodlights visible in the distance.

The shot changes to show a closeup of multi-coloured railings, through which the empty sports field can be seen, as sombre music starts in the background and a woman begins speaking offscreen begins.

Subtitles appear at the bottom of the screen to show the dialogue and continue throughout the video.

Verna’s voiceover: So at Belong Nottingham, we work with refugees, asylum seekers and migrants.

The shot changes to show a young girl on a swing in a children’s playground. She is looking directly at the camera, and the same multi-coloured railings and empty sports field are visible behind her as the camera zooms in on her. 

The shot changes to show the woman who is speaking.

She is sat in front of a window, through which activity on a sports field can be seen. A pink caption on the lower left of the screen introduces her as ‘Verna Prince, Belong Nottingham’. She is wearing a grey coat and a black scarf. 

Verna says: The transitions are very hard for them, in terms of leaving their homes and coming to the UK and resettling. And whether it is to understand the education system, the language barriers. So that transition for them is much more difficult, and so they find themselves isolated. So Belong offer a wide variety of services. We help them to make that transition into the UK much easier.

The shot changes to show a young girl wearing a black coat, looking away from the camera.

They are stood next to a piece of equipment in the same children’s playground seen earlier. Footage of that empty playground is then shown, before the video returns to Verna speaking in front of the camera. 

Verna says: With our young people, it is important to keep young people focused so I decided to approach Beeston Hockey Club. Beeston has been very accommodating, very friendly, very warm and welcoming. 

The shot changes to show a close up of a young boy wearing a red jacket and a grey hat looking directly at the camera.

Footage of a group of several young people pushing a hockey balls from left to right as part of a training drill is then shown.

The shot changes to show Gareth Griffiths from Beeston Hockey Club stood in front of a group of several young people, coaching them.

The words ‘Very Friendly’ appear in white text in the middle of the screen above the participants, in sync with Verna’s voiceover, as the shot changes to show a large group of young people, a mix of participants from the Belong charity and Beeston Hockey Club, practicing moving hockey balls from left to right as part of a training drill. The text then disappears from the screen.

The shot changes to show a man in Beeston Hockey Club kit helping a young participant from Belong with the training drill.

Over the top of this footage, two transparent blue bands appear at the top and bottom of the screen.

The words ‘Belong Nottingham and Beeston Hockey Club’ appear in the centre of the screen in white text, with the Belong Nottingham and Beeston Hockey Club logos above them.

Underneath, the words ‘Bees Belong’ appears in smaller white text. In the bottom left and top right corners, a white space appears on the blue bars.

In the white space on the bottom left, the Buddle logo appears, before all text and graphics disappear from the screen. 

Verna’s voiceover: The area in which we live, of course, it has a high knife crime, gang rate. So our programmes are designed to empower young people and we use sports especially for social integration. We use sports for helping with their mental health, their physical health, as well as to provide them with a packed dinner afterwards because you know, the area, it's so deprived in terms of food poverty.

The shot changes to show a residential street.

As the camera moves across to the right, graffiti is seen on the wall closest to the camera. Footage showing a high-rise block of flats is then shown, followed by a close up of a public bin with graffiti on it.

Two people can be seen walking in the background along a path in an open space, before the video returns to show Verna speaking to the camera. 

The shot then changes to show a hockey pitch with several young people playing hockey. Some are wearing orange bibs and others are wearing green bibs. There are hockey goals in the background and beyond the pitch are trees.

Footage of the participants as they play hockey, shot from behind through the fence around the pitch, is then shown.

A participant can be seen with their back to the camera in front of a goal, with the activity taking place in front of him.

In the background, a building can be seen. The words ‘Social integration’ appear at the top of the screen in sync with Verna’s voiceover, as the camera pans to the right along the pitch.

The text disappears as the shot then changes to show another participant in front of a different set of goals in the background, with hockey activity taking place in the foreground.

The word ‘Health’ appears in white text at the bottom right of the screen, in sync with Verna’s voiceover, before the text disappears and the video returns to show Verna speaking to the camera. 

The shot changes to show the young man seen coaching participants in earlier footage, sitting in a room talking to the camera.

He is sat in front of a window overlooking a car park in front of a hockey pitch, and there is a photo of hockey activity seen on the wall to the left of the window. He is wearing a yellow Beeston Hockey Club jacket.

As he begins to speak, a pink caption appears in the bottom left of the screen which says ‘Gareth Griffiths, Beeston Hockey Club’. 

Gareth says: We looked at it and we were so excited. We thought, like ‘what an opportunity.’ There's these families, young people on our doorstep, not really accessing too much sport. So we thought we've got to get involved with this, we've got to do something.

Gareth is shown speaking to the camera, before the shot changes to show young children playing hockey.

In the foreground, two young people are trying to take the hockey ball from each other. In the background, a young boy wearing glasses and a black sports top runs towards them holding a hockey stick.

Behind them, Sam Apoola from Beeston Hockey Club can be seen wearing a dark beanie hat and a grey and yellow Beeston sports jacket. 

The shot changes to show a boy wearing a black and white tracksuit and a green bib running across the hockey pitch after a hockey ball. He is holding a hockey stick, and is smiling and saying something to someone offscreen as he runs. 

The shot changes to show several young people, some wearing orange or green bibs, playing hockey together. In the top right corner of the screen the words ‘Get involved’ appear in white text as the camera pans to follow the hockey activity onscreen.

The text disappears and the shot changes to show Sam Apoola coaching the young boy wearing the black and white tracksuit. 

Verna’s voiceover: We did a taster session for the young group to see if this is what they like, and went from there to form Bees Belong. 

As Verna speaks, the video shows a girl wearing a brown puffer style jacket, with braided hair and glasses, walking away from a hockey goal and smiling at something behind the camera.

Out of focus in the background, young people can be seen playing hockey before the video returns to show Verna talking to the camera.  

Gareth’s voiceover: Since then, we've been doing sessions in inner city Nottingham and trying to get them to actually come to the centre. So yeah there is a demand for it now. 

The voiceover changes to Gareth speaking, at the same time as the shot changes to show footage of Gareth on the hockey pitch talking with a group of participants.

The video returns to show Gareth talking to the camera briefly, before changing to a shot looking up to the sky with the silhouette of floodlights from around the hockey pitch.

The shot changes to focus on a corner flag on a blue hockey pitch, with a group of participants playing hockey in front of a hockey goal seen in the background but out of focus. The word ‘Demand’ appears in white text to the left of the corner flag in sync with Gareth’s voiceover. 

Verna’s voiceover: When I took my young people to Beeston Hockey Club, and the look on their faces? That was a million dollars! 

As Verna begins speaking, the shot changes to show five young males in green bibs holding hockey sticks and pushing a hockey ball into the goal, being coached by a volunteer from Beeston Hockey Club who is wearing a blue jacket.

The shot changes to show a close up of one of the young males walking across the hockey pitch, smiling and talking to the person next to him, before footage of two young boys high-fiving each other is shown.

They are on the blue hockey pitch, and other younger children can be seen around them but out of focus. The video then returns to Verna as she finishes speaking.

The shot changes to show two young male participants sat next to each other in the same room that Verna was shown in.

The boy is sat on the left wears a zip-up sports top. The boy sat on the right and wears a black and grey sports top with white stripes. The boy on the left starts speaking, and a pink caption appears on the bottom right of the screen introducing him as ‘Abala, Participant, Bees Belong’. 

Abala says: They really treated us like we're equals, making me welcome and I really enjoyed that.

Whilst Abala speaks, the shot changes to show him talking to Sam Apoola from Beeston Hockey Club.

They are shaking hands and in the background a small group of people can be seen looking over, one of whom is holding a camera.

The word ‘Equals’ appears on the top left corner of the screen in white text, as the camera pans round to show Gareth smiling and talking to Sam and Abala.

The video switches to show Abala hitting a ball into a goal, as Sam watches with his back to the camera. He is wearing a yellow jacket with the word ‘Beeston’ on the back in black text.  

The shot returns to show the two young male participants. The boy sat on the left begins speaking as a pink caption appears on the bottom right of the screen introducing him as ‘Imran, Participant, Bees Belong’.

Imran says: My favourite thing about Bees Belong was all of the activities and all the new skills and all the fun things we could do. 

As Imran speaks, the shot changes to show four children wearing orange bibs playing hockey on the blue pitch. The voice of Helen Davis then starts speaking whilst this footage is onscreen. 

Helen says: A big challenge has been access to pitches and resources here in the Hyson Green area. We're talking about a different group of people that have got other things going on in their life and there's other challenges and actually the time to drive over to the club or catch the tram over to the club isn't on the priority list.

We need to be doing stuff in the community here with a view to actually, still do stuff at Beeston so you still, they get that connection, the kids can still have that aspiration and ambition and actually ‘that is where I want to be and what I want to do.’ 

The video changes to show Helen sat in the same room that Verna, Abala and Imran have been interviewed in.

An empty sports pitch can be seen through the window behind Helen, out of focus. A pink caption appears in the bottom left to introduce her as ‘Helen Davis, Active Partners Trust’.

As Helen finishes talking, the shot changes to show Gareth and another male with their backs to the camera talking to a group of Bees Belong participants from both organisations, who are all holding hockey sticks and one has a goalie kit on.

The word ‘Connection’ appears in white text in the middle of the screen above the group, in sync with Helen’s voiceover, then disappears as the shot changes to show Gareth and Verna sat next to each other in the same room as Helen. The hockey pitches can be seen out of focus through the window. 

Gareth says: I think for both of us, we didn't know it was going to work we just had that conversation. We just gave it a go really. We didn't always know what we were doing and we sort of muddled through at times, but actually when we look back on it now each step we've done has been brilliant. It's so worth it. 

Verna smiles as Gareth talks and nods when he looks over at her.

The shot then changes to a close up of Gareth outside on the blue hockey pitch. He is smiling and talking to someone in a yellow Beeston Hockey Club jacket who has their back to the camera. The footage then changes to one of a group of participants running across the front of the camera, chasing a hockey ball.

In sync with Gareth’s voiceover, the words ‘Gave it a go’ appear on screen in white text before disappearing as the video returns to Gareth and Verna talking to the camera. Verna smiles and nods at what Gareth is saying. 

The shot changes showing a close up of Abala and Imran standing next to each other on the hockey pitch.

Imran has his arm around Abala’s shoulders, and they are smiling at the camera as it zooms in towards them. 

Verna’s voiceover: Whatever your socio-economic background, you are welcome to play hockey. No matter who or what colour of your skin or if you are a foreigner, you're welcome to play hockey. So that made them feel welcome and at home.

The shot changes to show a close up of a young boy, wearing a beanie hat and holding a hockey stick who is looking at the camera and smiling.

The word ‘Welcome’ appears at the top of the screen in white text over the boy’s head. Other young participants can be seen out of focus in the background, but disappear as the camera pans round the young boy.

Footage of another young boy is shown, still with the text ‘Welcome’ across the top of the screen, stood in front of the camera with has arms up making a strongman pose. The video returns to Verna talking to the camera as the text disappears from the screen. 

The shot changes to show a young man wearing a black hoodie, sat in the same interview room as we have seen previously. A pink caption appears in the bottom left of the screen to introduce him as ‘Abdelaziz, Participant, Bees Belong’. 

Abdelaziz says: It’s helped me out a lot to become confident and to speak fluently and to get better in English.

The shot changes to show the same girl seen earlier, with a brown puffer jacket, braided hair and glasses, sat in the same interview room as we have seen previously. A pink caption appears in the bottom left of the screen to introduce her as ‘Venus, Participant, Bees Belong’. 

Venus says: They've helped me to build my self-confidence. 

The shot changes to show Sam Apoola, seen previously in the video. He is sat in a hockey shelter on the side of the blue hockey pitch, wearing a yellow Beeston Hockey Club jacket and talking to the camera. As he begins to speak, a pink caption appears in the bottom left of the screen which says ‘Sam Apoola, Beeston Hockey Club’.

Sam says: We’re increasing the diversity of the club, which is really important because you want the hockey club to reflect kind of the wider society.  

In sync with Sam’s speech, the word ‘Diversity’ appears on screen in white text next to him.

The shot then changes to show the bottom half of a participant playing hockey, pushing a ball with their stick as a new female voice starts speaking.

The shot then changes to show the woman speaking. She is sat in the same shelter where Sam had been shown, and a pink caption appears in the bottom left of the screen which says ‘Nihad, Parent, Bees Belong’. She wears a black coat and red and white floral hijab.

Nihad says: It is good to send our child to activities because, you know this is good for mental health and you know, I guess physical activities. 

As Nihad speaks the shot changes to footage filmed from behind a hockey goal. Imran is in the goal with his back to the camera whilst Abala pushes the ball in Imran’s direction, taking a shot at the goal and smiling.

In the background are a number of young people wearing Beeston Hockey Club kit talking to Gareth.

In sync with Nihad’s voiceover, the words ‘Mental health’ and ‘Physical activities’ appear on the screen. The text disappears as the shot changes to show a group of participants running across the blue pitch cheering and smiling, with their arms aloft. 

The shot changes to show Gareth with his back to the camera and walking towards the young participants who are across the blue hockey pitch.

Gareth’s voiceover: Yes, it is about playing hockey and being involved with sport but actually what comes with it, and the relationships and the family feel, is so much bigger than sport anyway and it is sport that makes that happen.

The shot changes to a close up of a young participant wearing a blue hockey goalkeeper’s helmet and smiling at the camera.

The word ‘Relationships’ appears on screen in white text, in sync with Gareth’s voiceover. This is followed by footage of a young Beeston Hockey player, wearing club kit, exchanging a ‘high five’ with one of two young Belong participants walking past him on the blue hockey pitch. 

Verna says: And the community spirit as well. It's part of two communities merging together, becoming one. 

The camera follows the two young participants as they walk towards other young participants also on the hockey pitch.

The words ‘Community spirit’ appear at the top of the screen in white text in sync with Verna’s voiceover, which stays on screen as the video returns to Gareth and Verna sat next to each other in the same room shown previously.

The text disappears as Verna brings her hands to link her fingers, to signify merging. The shot then changes to show a group of Bees Belong participants in a circle, putting their hands in the middle and raising them in the air. 

As the music fades out, the screen becomes white and the words ‘With thanks to Belong Nottingham and Beeston Hockey Club’ appear in navy blue text in the centre of the screen, above the Belong logo, the Beeston Hockey Club logo and the Buddle logo. 

Finally, the Club Matters logo is shown again with The National Lottery and Sport England logos. The Club Matters website (www.thebudle.co.uk) as well as the Sport England website (www.sportengland.org) are presented at the bottom of the screen as the video ends.

More from Belong

Belong Nottingham (Belong) is a charity working with refugees, asylum seekers and migrants, which has teamed up with Beeston Hockey Club (BHC) to pilot bringing sport and physical activity to the people they work with.

Here, Verna Prince, Youth and Community Development Worker at Belong, shares some of the challenges faced by the families Belong supports, how they can prevent people getting involved in sport, and how the Bees Belong project has worked to overcome these.

Belong Nottingham aims to ensure refugees, asylum seekers and migrants can reach their full potential.

Sport can play a key part in this, but the challenges faced by those transitioning into life in the UK can prevent them from getting involved. These challenges include:

Language and cultural barriers. These impact on almost all areas of daily life. Most refugees, asylum seekers and migrants don’t speak English as their first language, and some don’t speak any at all when they arrive.

They often don’t understand their rights in different situations which makes them feel less confident about speaking up and interacting with new people.

Language barriers can make developing new social networks slow and difficult.

In school settings, they can spark bullying and discrimination which can harm confidence and self-esteem.

Limited networks. Having a limited social and family network can also lead to loneliness, depression, anxiety, and other behavioural issues.

Living on low incomes. Refugees, asylum seekers and migrants often live on low incomes. Adults often have to work multiple jobs to get by, meaning they have less time to spend with their families.

Many refugees, asylum seekers and migrants have large families, and some send money home to support others, making it even more difficult to afford things other families might take for granted.

Feeling safe. People tend to feel safer in their own communities for many reasons.

For example, refugees, asylum seekers and migrants are often from diverse ethnic backgrounds, so for some, entering what look like ‘all-white’ places can be scary.

They tend to stay within their cultural or geographic communities because they’re worried they won’t fit in, be welcomed, make friends, or belong.

Sadly, this means they can become more isolated and miss out on the very opportunities that could help support their transition.

Like anyone, the people we work with want to find places where they feel safe and have a sense of belonging.

Sport and physical activity can help to support people’s transition but community clubs and groups need to help people overcome these challenges.

When delivered in a safe, welcoming and inclusive environment, sport and physical activity can do wonders for refugees, asylum seekers and migrants as they adjust to their new lives.

It can help them to feel healthier, happier and like they’re part of something, especially in a group setting.

However, dealing with the challenges presented by transitioning to the UK makes it hard for the families we work with to prioritise sport and activity.

Low incomes make it difficult to afford fees, travel to and from venues and purchase kit or equipment.

Language and cultural differences make people worried about communicating with others, whilst the places where refugees, asylum seekers and migrants settle don’t always have accessible sports facilities they feel comfortable using.

Providers of community sport are often unaware of these challenges and, therefore, their offer is often not set up in a way that helps to overcome them.

Working in partnership with Beeston Hockey Club – lessons learnt

I wanted our young people to be able to experience and benefit from sport in a community setting, so I picked up the phone and contacted Beeston Hockey Club (BHC) to see if and how they could help.

The response from them was overwhelmingly positive. We forged a partnership to try and make hockey more accessible for the families we work with.

This led to us forming ‘Bees Belong’, a pilot project to offer fun, informal and safe hockey sessions for children and young people (CYP) from migrant, refugee and asylum seeker families.

The project was designed to help them get active and integrate with people from across the community.

The pilot has increased our understanding of how to make community sport more inclusive and accessible for everyone. It has also given our families opportunities they otherwise wouldn’t have had.

Our Bees Belong project has been working hard to overcome the challenges faced by our young people and families.

BHC has been really open to learning about these challenges.

This has enabled us to develop activities that encourage CYP, their siblings and wider families to enjoy themselves, make new friends and learn new skills through hockey.

We are working hard to find ways to make this pilot sustainable in the long term with the support of Active Notts (Active Partners Trust).

Advice to other organisations

For other community clubs and organisations interested in setting up a project to support more asylum seekers, refugees and migrants to be active, we would definitely say give it a go because you don’t know what might happen! To help, here are our top tips from what we have learnt so far:

Partner with trusted organisations that already work with the people you want to engage. These organisations can give you access to useful insight, support you to develop accessible activities, help you promote opportunities and encourage people to get involved. Depending on their capacity, they may help to share the workload and be able to bring in different experiences and perspectives.
Keep costs as low as possible – free is best! Some families won’t be able to afford kit or equipment, so set sessions up in a way that means people won’t miss out if they don’t have the ‘right’ things.
Whilst it might be fairly normal in England to carry on with sport and activity in bad weather, this can be off-putting for refugees, asylum seekers and migrants. Indoor activities are likely to be better attended until you’ve built up some momentum so try and keep activities inside initially.
Take the offer to people! A lot of our families don’t feel confident travelling too far, because of time, cost and the unfamiliarity of new places. Finding venues in the areas they live in encourages their attendance and can help to reach more people quickly.
The families we work with approach many things as a unit, so look at how you can accommodate siblings and family members getting involved too. Some parents and siblings who start watching on the side-lines don’t need much persuading to join in, so encourage them where you can!
For some of the families we work with, even putting food on the table is difficult. If you can offer nutritious food to participants after your activities, it can make a huge difference to some people.
Sometimes the parents we work with don’t want their children to be distracted from education; we’ve explored ways to address this, for example by including time before or after sessions where they can access our help with their homework.
Keep talking to the people taking part and their families, to make sure your delivery continues to meet their needs. If they stop turning up, ask them why and see what you can do to encourage them back.

Our young people are seeing so many benefits, from developing their language skills to meeting new people and building their self-confidence, all in an environment that gives them a true sense of belonging whilst they find their own identities in a new country.

The help we’ve received from Active Notts (APT) has been invaluable to the Bees Belong project.

Helen Davis, a Strategic Lead at Active Notts (APT), has been with us every step of the way to answer questions and support both our organisation and the club.

Working with Helen has helped us keep our people at the heart of the project whilst we learned to integrate sport into our offer. Helen says:

"Working with Gareth from Beeston Hockey Club, and Verna and Jean-Didier at Belong, has been and continues to be a really amazing experience.

"It has been great to be part of the openness to learn and share together not only resources but also wider connections and relationships and ideas and knowledge.

"We have worked flexibly and adapted to really put the needs of the Belong community at the heart of the Bees Belong Programme.

"I’m not saying it’s been easy because it hasn’t there has been challenges but we have gotten through them together.

"The work is based on trust, if I was to advise anyone else trying to do something similar I would say take time to get to know the people leading and managing the work, take time to build trust and relationships, don’t be afraid to try new things and let them evolve by staying close to and supporting the work.

"It is not what you do it’s the way that you do it that will enable and support change."

Find out more

Beeston Hockey Club Belong Nottingham