How Ryan creates vital opportunities for young people in north Liverpool
Ryan was a 16-year-old youth worker when he set up the Sports Alive charity, to combat a lack of provisions for the young people in his area. He believes running the DofE programme will bring even more opportunities for young people in his north Liverpool community. He is passionate about the DofE, having ‘loved every minute’ of his Bronze, Silver and Gold. He says it improved his communication, teamwork and leadership skills and introduced him to new things and now he wants to provide those same development opportunities for the young people he works with, opportunities they may not, ordinarily, be able to access.
More than anything Ryan hopes that these young people gain courage, broaden their horizons and, ultimately, enjoy more healthy, successful lives.
He says: “The main aim of our organisation is to create safer, stronger, healthier communities. We work across the north of the city, a very deprived part of Liverpool. We try to give young people better opportunities because they are struggling with the cost-of-living crisis. We also have a massive issue with areas that are quite high in anti-social behaviours.
“DofE will give these young people massive opportunities that, unfortunately, we don’t see much of in our communities because there’s not a lot of money there. The opportunity of having DofE for young people outside of school is key, it removes barriers. It offers a different approach, doing the Awards with youth workers as opposed to teachers and taking them outside of that school setting.
“Having young people step-up as part of DofE, to go into the community and help will really make them feel part of the community, to respect that along with improving their own life skills and health. I hope DofE gives the young people courage. I hope it gives them the opportunity to access new things. I hope that they go on, through the skills and experience they get, to find jobs which can hopefully lead to a healthy and successful life.”
Sports Alive was set up by Gold DofE Award holder Ryan Manville at the age of 16 when he spotted a gap in provision for young people across Merseyside. Sports Alive works with disenfranchised young people who have dropped out of school or are likely to drop out of school for a range of reasons.
In 2023 Sports Alive were able to introduce the DofE to a small group of their young people to give them something positive to work towards to help divert them away from the streets and into education. This opportunity was made possible with support from DofE’s Access Without Limits community funding, generously supported by The Julia Rausing Trust.