Gone Fishing!

The Saints Foundations Men’s Health Project Health Kicks has swapped the football pitch for the fishery in the hope to offer Southampton men a slightly different type of Sporting activity.

Health Kicks has linked up with The Saints Foundation’s Local Charity Society of St. James to offer any client within its service the opportunity to take part in a 6 week ASDAN fishery course at Greenridge Farm, Ampfield.

The course is being run by local company For Life Experiences, who offer a range of agricultural sports at a premium rate to a variety of local communities as part of a grant from the City Council. For Life experiences offer Family Learning and educational courses to people within the inner city’s to get men, women and children learning in an outdoor environment and closely follow the Governments 2006 learning manifesto:

“We believe that every young person should experience the world beyond the classroom as an essential part of learning and personal development, whatever their age, ability or circumstances.”

The 6 weeks course has seen 20 men from the Society of St. James’ Drug Intervention Programme, Bridge open access Drugs centre and Hostel service learn five different types of fishing, take part in team building activities and Plan, Prepare and Evaluate every activity that they take part in. The men on the course have all come from a diverse background, some very hectic and fishing has been used as a catalyst for improving behavioral change and healthy lifestyles.

The Saints Foundation and Society of St. James aim to encourage the current group of men to continue onto the next stage of their Fishing Journey and progress onto the more advanced Fishery Management Qualification.

Dean Latona, Drugs Rehabilitation Requirement Supervisor for Society of St. James said “The fishing course has been a big success engaging our clients into positive activities. A lot of our clients put boredom down to a large factor of their drug use, what we need to do through sports is to show them that there are other activities out there that they will enjoy that can replace the “buzz” of drugs.”

“When you are involved in a sporting activity or strenuous exercise routine, your pituitary gland releases substantial quantities of 'endorphins' and ‘enkephalins’ , chemicals which can block sensations of pain and produce overall feelings of euphoria. It is one thing telling people to do things but it is much better to physically take people and give them examples of what is on offer in the community.”             

Dean went on to say that “The fishing course will reduce our clients drug intake for the 7 hours they are attending, over 7 weeks that’s 49 hours of not using, this has many positive physical implications, it has already been reported that our clients are sleeping better after fishing an area in which they tend to struggle.” 

The Health Kicks Project has been working closely with Society of St. James for over a 6 month period to offer vulnerable adults a range of sporting activities and aims to run a joint sports club in the near future to continue these examples of good work.

For further information on Team FLE please fo to www.forlifeexp.com. For further information on the health kicks project call the Saints Foundation on 0845 688 9370.