Levelling the Playing Field partners and Gwent Police have joined forces to stage the Community Cohesion Cup - breaking down barriers and building trust between ethnic communities and local services.
Our strategic partners in Gwent, Newport Live, have partnered another LtPF organisation Exiles Together, plus EYST Wales and Gwent Police to co-organise a football tournament to build relationships between different ethnic communities and with the police.
The tournament kicked off on Sunday (25 July) with three more qualifying rounds to follow comprising teams from Newport’s Yemeni, Bangladeshi, Polish and Sudanese communities. The winning team will play a team made up of services and organisations (including police officers and PCSOs) in the final at Newport Stadium on 22 August.
Jalal Goni, the founder of our partners Exiles Together who has a dual role with EYST, organised previous highly successful versions of the Community Cohesion Cup in Cardiff and Swansea as well as this latest tournament.
“Sport is absolutely the best way to break down barriers that exist between these ethnic communities and the police,” he said.
“Ethnic communities tend to stick to their own, but this tournament opens the door to achieve a better balance of relationships between the communities. Football is an ice-breaker. They will see each other in town and they have football in common and will say hello to each other.”
The tournament coincides with Levelling the Playing Field’s ‘Criminal Justice Month’ and is a perfect example of sport and criminal justice collaborating to positively impact on the community.
Jalal commented: “For us, Exiles Together being part of Levelling the Playing Field has given us a much bigger audience to work with and a chance to engage with many more communities.”
Since Covid-19 restrictions were relaxed, Exiles Together’s LtPF football sessions have expanded to two seven-a-side and two five-a-side pitches every Wednesday plus a girls’ under-16 self-defence class on Saturdays. They have also organised trips out to the beach and Cardiff Castle. They engage between 50-80 children each week.
Previous versions of the Community Cohesion Cup in Cardiff and Swansea have led to four people from participating communities joining the police and two others starting roles with Cardiff City Community Foundation as coaches.
Before last Sunday’s first match in Newport, local police officers and PCSOs spoke to the players about their roles. Two participants came forward to express an interest in joining up.
Jalal revealed that certain individuals were initially reluctant to play in the tournament because of recent incidents that have placed severe strain on trust between Newport’s ethnically diverse communities and the police. However, community members realised that the tournament was a chance for different ethnic groups to be represented within the police, which will hopefully lead to better representation and positive steps forward.
“It’s in our hands,” said Jalal. “If people from all walks of life join the police, then we have hope of achieving change.”