A city sporting initiative, backed by Aberdeen-born football legend Denis Law, has received the royal seal of approval for its work with underprivileged youngsters.
Streetsport has been awarded the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service after more than a decade creating opportunities for children and young people in Aberdeen.
The group has devised schemes including midnight football sessions, and was instrumental in the opening of Scotland’s first Cruyff Court facility in the city.
It joined forces with Judy Murray to bring Tennis on the Road to the Granite City, and has had the constant backing and support of former Manchester United and Scotland striker Law, whose charity, the Denis Law Legacy Trust, supports the initiative.
Streetsport’s Mark Williams said: “We’re delighted that we have been awarded the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service – and we are very proud of our volunteers.”
Councillor Martin Greig added: “Streetsport has built up a great reputation over years of service to the city. The Queen’s Award is a welcome and very much deserved recognition of the tremendous amount of good work that the team has done for young people.
“The police, the fire service, the council and RGU have all joined together to ensure that Streetsport has been a positive presence.
“They have made a difference for the good and Streetsport has a great future ahead. This award is an encouraging boost that celebrates this important project.”
Streetsport is a non-profit prevention, intervention and diversionary tactics initiative based at RGU Sport at the city’s Robert Gordon University. Established in 2006, the scheme delivers free weekly sports and creative activity sessions for young people throughout the city.
It deploys mobile activity arenas directly into local communities and operates during peak times of anti-social behaviour.
More than 100 volunteers have helped deliver a range of activities and activity arenas have been deployed more than 1,600 times and provided over 3,000 hours of free doorstep activity for youths in the region.
The scheme’s activities have exceeded 35,000 attendances and active participations.
