Met-Track looking forward to 2017

As 2016 nears its end, Met-Track is in the process of moving into a new dimension, with a new management structure, and new partnerships set to drive the project into 2017 and beyond.

One of the most successful youth diversion schemes in the country now, Met-Track’s new lease of life thanks to the BIG Lottery Fund’s new grant, which runs until 2020, will see its new Executive board meet early in the New Year, along with a revamped Performance Review Group.

Far from getting wrapped up in red tape, Scheme Director John Powell MBE explained it actually reduces any bureaucracy:

“Working with a multiplicity of partners, having to monitor a complex budget and hit numerous performance targets can be challenging,” he said, “but the way we are set up now provides robust scrutiny of what we are doing, whilst ensuring the emphasis remains on efficient ground floor delivery of the scheme across London.”

John, who founded the scheme in 2005 having been an athletics coach himself for over 40 years now, also leads a scheme at Crystal Palace in South East London, where up to 20 young people have populated an evermore enthusiastic group who he is integrating into his coaching academy at the centre.

“Sport is an incredibly powerful medium,” John added, “and the enthusiasm shown by my group when they find they can actually improve and achieve something themselves is terrific. During a set of time trials a week ago, we had ecstatic young people shouting and jumping up and down when they learned that they had improved their time for a short 40 metre sprint. It’s far from rocket science!”

Met-Track's Croydon squad during a session at Crystal Palace