FOOTBALL BEYOND BARS

Education charity, Football Beyond Borders (FBB) is all about changing young people’s lives. At the heart of our work alongside them is the idea of putting young people front and centre.

The Beyond Bars campaign does that by putting them both literally in front of and behind the camera. It was a project designed to give young people the chance to flex their creative passions.

This began with virtual writing workshops, led by professional writers, spoken word artists and creatives, who held sessions on Zoom for participants who were asked to write personal poems based on their lives in lockdown.

Yassin Slimani-Mendez, 14, and Abi Simms, 16, were chosen as winners by a panel of judges that included A.S.Roma defender Chris Smalling. Their words were then turned into films that they starred in, directed by Lainey Richardson from Caviar TV Productions.