OVER 400 Jamaican youths deemed to be “at risk” will this week benefit from the benevolence of a group of Canadians which is in the island promoting better relationships via football through the For Kicks (Kids Involving Community for Knowledge in Sports) programme.

The For Kicks camps, which began on Monday, at the Dunrobin Multi-Purpose field at Dunrobin Avenue, will move to Montego Bay tomorrow.

The group of 21 is headed by Toronto Police Department Sergeant, Stephen Hicks, who told the Observer they run a similar programme at his base in Ontario, Canada, and was encouraged to run the clinics here by Jamaican/Canadian Stephen Young-Chin — who thought it may be good to pass on the principles of the programme to youth in similar situations in the island.

“I see a lot of homicides in our area and a lot of things that weren’t being done to engage the kids or to help, and that’s got to come a stop… we need to figure out what the problems are and try to change so that they don’t become statistics.

“We teach them a lot of life skills… what they need to learn, what is lacking or missing,” he added. “We teach them the seven principles of being leaders and they learn something and (will) be educated on how to be a better person,” he said.

Hicks first visited Jamaica in 2008 to examine the possibilities and ran a few clinics before arranging for the group — which includes other members of the Toronto Police Force, football coaches, football players, as well as university students — to return this year.

“(In 2008) we ran some clinics and we came away with so much in the way of knowledge and appreciating that once these guys got into games and forgot the boundaries in the neighbourhoods, there were no issues,” Hicks said.

The Canadians paid the expenses and shipping costs for over 1,000 pieces of sporting equipment out of their own pockets.

Gear donated include football shorts and jerseys; 400 football boots; 400 balls; more than three dozen tracksuits; hockey equipment and a range of school supplies, including books, bags, pencils and crayons.

The participants, who will be drawn from different communities across Kingston and St James, are part of the A Ganar, a USAIDfunded programme for at-risk youth in Latin America and the Caribbean.

“They were from all over and just because it’s about sport and a game, everything else goes away,” he said.

He added that the camps had no regimented format, but that they let things happen naturally.

“We set up some drills, work on some skills, and there are some massive skills in Jamaica, and if they were given the opportunity, given the athletic ability that they have, everything would be better,” he said.

“We’re not going to change everything here… in a clinic, but we’ve opened up a lot of eyes. We’ve made a lot of friends and I think they can say the cops aren’t so bad if they see us out of uniform and they see us teaching.

“When you give a kid an opportunity and you give them all the tools to become the best they can be, it’s amazing what comes out of it,” he declared.