Group using sports as intervention into social ills

As Barbados grapples with a worrying spate of deadly shootings and other forms of violent crime, a young concerned man has revived an innovative means of intervention called Shoot Fuh Life.                                                                                 

The brainchild of the head of Combined Faith Christian Sports Evangelism Ministry Dean Squires, Shoot Fuh Life is a series of youth basketball competitions designed to help address some of the nation’s social and health concerns including bullying, violence and non-communicable diseases (NCD). 

The programme, which started in 2015 as an initiative of Combined Faith Christian Sports Evangelism Ministry, was brought to a halt in 2020 due to the onset of the COVIDC-19 pandemic.  But determined not to let it die, Squires revisited the venture and has placed it back in motion this year.

“So far, the programme has brought about some behavioural changes in some young men who were considered at risk. Some of these young people are no longer seen as such as they are now more focused on the sport and achieving positive outcomes,” Squires told Barbados TODAY. 

Squires, who has joined forces with owner of the local distributor of the Japanese PEAK Basketball brand, Patrick Hendy Harewood, to try to keep the programme alive, has seen the impact the project was having over the first three years and therefore introduced it into some schools in 2018.

Squires said while he started with basketball, they are looking to include most sports that call for “ball shots”. 

“We want to extend to sports such as football and road tennis and leverage other sports that can produce shots like hockey shots, cricket shots, netball shots as we pursue a mission to implement the project in all 30 constituencies across Barbados,” the Christian young man stated.     

                                                                                                           

Harewood said the programme had initial target groups of the first to third formers at secondary schools and classes one to four at primary schools.                                                                                                                      “Aside from increasing their physical activity and basketball skills, the programme also helped students to improve their self-esteem, confidence, motivation, self-control and discipline. This in turn helped their health and wellness, their academics, and their focus in terms of keeping away from deviant trends and vices,” he told Barbados TODAY.

“It also gave us opportunities to share the Gospel message to those who were interested in such,” Harewood added.

He said there were three types of competitions. For example, players representing their form in an inter-form competition at their respective schools, those representing their school in an inter-school competition amongst their respective year levels, and players representing themselves in an open competition within the respective year levels.                                                                                        

The local businessman, who is appealing to other corporate entities to support this important intervention programme, said they are looking to increase its impact by including some of the older age groups as well as to get into the communities by having competitions among the constituencies of Barbados.

“Therefore, we introduced the Shoot Fuh Life 2-point Basketball Shooting Competition which is the juniors’ version of the NBA 3-point competition,” Harewood said. (EJ)