Cashback Off the Bench with Cameron and Jake
Written By Jake Gray
CashBack Off the Bench gives young people aged 16-24 an opportunity to focus on their personal development with access to education, exercise programmes, mentoring and mental health support – all in a bid to give young people additional skills to progress through life in a positive way.
Falkirk Foundation run the programme, which is funded by the Scottish Government’s CashBack scheme, to provide young people with an opportunity to access education, physical and mental health support and more, to help build better futures.
Cameron O’Hanlon believes participating in CashBack Off the Bench has helped him move in a positive direction.
“CashBack Off the Bench has helped me with my confidence,” he said.
“It’s helped me to keep myself together. I can be a lot more professional in certain situations, I’m happier with things that I do, I’ve got two jobs, I’m stable.
“Doing CashBack Off the Bench has definitely opened doors, it’s helped me meet loads of new people, and gave me so many opportunities. I feel like I’m doing really well for myself now, and I don’t think that’s the end of it.”
Jake has also benefitted greatly from taking part in the programme at The Falkirk Stadium.
“It’s helped me get where I wanted to be and what I wanted to become as a person. I wanted to become a football coach and this programme has helped me succeed in that.
“I would recommend it. The skills, the mentality and everything you learn on the course is great.”
Grant Ferguson delivers the course, and says how much of an impact it makes on the young people participating.
“At the beginning the young people don’t know each other and they’re all coming on the course for different reasons. By the end, they all work really well together.
“Through team building activities the group come closer and closer together and by the end of it we’ve got a team of people who are really happy and have all done well.”
To learn more about CashBack Off the Bench, visit: https://spfltrust.org.uk/cotb/