Applying the Team of Life as a Group Intervention within a Community Football Organisation

Background: Young men are seldom heard by services, can find it difficult to speak about difficulties and face numerous barriers to help-seeking. Football-based approaches can be effective at making support accessible and familiar. The Team of Life is a collective narrative practice methodology that uses footballing metaphors to encourage young people to speak about their lives, recognise skills and strengths and tackle problems.

Aims: The current study aimed to explore the experience of attending a Team of Life group. Evaluating whether the intervention has an influence on the individuals, whether it has an impact on how the football team functions and whether effects of the group extend to the other ‘Teams’ in participants lives.

Methods: A four-session Team of Life group was run with ten young people from a local community football club. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with the ten participants. Analysis was conducted using reflexive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2022).

Results: Three overarching themes were generated. The first theme: ‘Internal Changes and Mentality - Thinking About Football Helped Us Think About Ourselves’ described the changes the participants noticed in themselves from attending the group. The second theme: ‘A Better Team Spirit in the Changing Room’ described the changes the participants had noticed in their teammates. The final theme: ‘Celebrating our Supporters in the Stands’ focuses on the impact of participants recognising their Team of Life and support system.

Conclusions: The findings demonstrate that the Team of Life group intervention can be implemented in a community football club and highlights the importance of taking support into places where young people already are. The experiences of the participants demonstrate the value of metaphors, safe spaces, and benefits for individuals and group cohesion. Implications from the research and recommendations for services, communities and future research are discussed and highlighted.