Video | Thursday, 6th December 2018

Learning from young people's experiences of the Street Child Football World Cup

The research led by Dr Su Corcoran will prepare teams for the Street Child Cricket World Cup next year

University research is helping to prepare young people and organisations that support them ahead of the upcoming Street Child Cricket World Cup.

Street Child United recently hosted the Street Child Summit, bringing together project leaders from the different teams that will play at the Street Child Cricket World Cup in London and Cambridge in May 2019.

The aim of the week was to prepare the different organisations for what to expect at the event and to help them prepare their teams for what could be the journey of a lifetime.

Dr Su Corcoran, a researcher at Manchester Metropolitan University’s Education and Social Research Institute, is leading a project investigating the impact of participating in the event on the players, their communities and the organisations that support them.

Dr Corcoran attended the summit to follow up with project leaders who had fielded teams at the Street Child Football World Cup in Moscow earlier this year.

The year-long research project involves post-event interviews with some of the teams, partner organisations and project leaders, both face-to-face and using Skype and WhatsApp.

Dr Corcoran said: “My research looks at the impact on the young people who participate in Street Child United events and the organisations supporting them. For young people taking part, travelling to a new country isn't easy and being involved in an intense event has a big impact.

“My research looks at this process and how organisations can prepare the children for the journey and their future."

The interim findings are already highlighting the challenges that young people face when they are preparing for the event and upon their return home, as well as the models of good practice used by organisations to prepare their teams effectively to meet and overcome these challenges. There are also many opportunities that have arisen as a result of the event, with the report due to come out in next year.

Dr Corcoran added: “The summit was a perfect opportunity for me to apply these interim findings during one or two of the sessions, to inform the project leaders of the potential challenges and opportunities that their teams may face on their journeys to the UK and when they return home.”