Rove Police Community youth to benefit from soccer training program

Sponsored Advertisement

More than 100 youth from the police community at the Rove Headquarters of the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force (RSIPF) in Honiara will benefit from a soccer training program which will start in January 2020.

And in preparation for the program, the Solomon Islands Police Development Program (SIPDP) has officially handed over all the soccer equipment for the training program during a ceremony at the Police Club in Rove this afternoon (13 December 2019).

Acting Commissioner of Police, Mostyn Mangau received the soccer equipment on behalf of the RSIPF from the Acting Commander of SIPDP, Darren Boyd-Skinner.

Sponsored Advertisement

“Since 2017 SIPDP has been fully committed to the Health and Safety of the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force and the wider community,” says Acting Commander Boyd-Skinner.
He explains: “In line with the RSIPF Crime prevention Strategy, this soccer training program is using soccer to engage with the youth in Rove to create more awareness about healthy lifestyles and increases access to free health and sporting activities for youth with an overarching goal of reducing antisocial behaviour and contributing to a happy, healthy and prosocial community.”

The soccer training will be available for the Rove Community and is aimed at girls and boys aged between 5 and 14 years. The training will occur twice weekly and will run during the school term, commencing in January 2020. Registrations for the program will be open in mid-January, and the program co-ordinator will be Sergeant (Sgt) Stanley Waite from the Police Academy.

The RSIPF from its ranks and files have identified 11 fully qualified coaches who will be coaching and mentoring the children in this program. RSIPF have the current under 17 National Coach Sgt Waita and former National Representative players.

In addition RSIPF has internationally recognised referees. All of these members are willing to give their time to support this important youth engagement program and our community.

The Soccer Training Program hopes to achieve:

• Building capability – bringing the community together through physical activity
• Inclusivity and youth engagement
• Improve Health and fitness
• Crime Prevention

Acting Commissioner Mangau thanked the SIPDP for coming up with this idea of building the capacity of the youth in the community at Rove.
“This will be the first community engagement program for the youth of the Rove Police community and we hope that the youth embrace this initiative and maybe we can discover the next National soccer star from within our community,” says Acting Commissioner Mangau.

Sustainability is always the first consideration for the development of any program and it is clear that RSIPF have the local leadership and strength in skills and experience that you can take complete local ownership of this program.