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Glasgow: January - March 2006

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Coaching with a Conscience

The "Coaching with a Conscience" campaign was instigated Show Racism The Red Card, in association with the Scottish Professional Footballer's Association and the Scottish Refugee Council.

The idea behind the project was to run a pilot scheme in schools in the Glasgow area, whereby schoolchildren would take part in " A Safe Place" workshop and be coached by former top Old firm footballers in a fun football session.

A Safe Place

Scotland, and Glasgow in particular, is continually evolving in terms of the cultural, religious and ethnic background of its inhabitants. Around 10% of Glaswegians are black or of an ethnic minority background. Of the 80,000 children currently in Glasgow schools, over 7000 are black or of an ethnic minority background and since May 2000 over 2400 children from asylum seeking families have enrolled in the cities schools. ¹

Racial problems are on the increase in our society and in our schools. From the 386 racially aggravated offences in Scotland in 1999, the figure had risen to 2965 by the year 2003. Whereas 369 racial incidents were reported in Glasgow schools in 2001, by 2003 the total number of incidents were 422. ² Unreported incidents would swell these benchmark figures considerably.

Show Racism The Red Card

Recent studies have highlighted that for children in Glasgow who are black or of ethnic origin, "racism is a feature of daily life". ³ Show Racism The Red Card is an anti-racist charity that aims to raise awareness amongst young people about the dangers of, and issues surrounding, racism in society. We make use of the powerful position of professional footballers as role models to deliver our anti-racist message. At each school visited during the campaign, the children would watch the Show Racism The Red Card educational video and engage in activities and discussions designed to raise awareness of issues relating to asylum seekers, refugees and racism in our contemporary society. The children would also take part in a fun football coaching session with ex Old firm players, Gerry Britton and Derek Ferguson, who would also spread our important message to the children, in a relaxed and informal environment.

Identifying the need

Our campaign embraced 17 schools in the Glasgow area, and both primary and secondary schools were visited. Five schools were chosen to take part in an evaluation of the project. A variety of schools were included in terms of numbers belonging to black or ethnic minority groups, primary or secondary schools and the number of asylum seeking children on the school roll. Before taking part in the workshop every child was asked to fill out a questionnaire detailing their preconceptions surrounding refugees and asylum seekers.⁴ A similar questionnaire completed after the workshop attempted to evaluate whether the children's attitudes had been altered by their taking part in the sessions.⁵ The teachers involved in each school were also asked to detail their opinions on the effectiveness of the process.⁶

¹ "Living in Glasgow", Glasgow District Council, January 2006
² Glasgow Anti racist Alliance, 20-05-05
³ "Spotlight 13", SCRE, Glasgow University.
⁴ Appendix 1, Pre- workshop questionnaire
⁵ Appendix 2, After workshop questionnaire
⁶ Appendix 3, Teachers questionnaire