School of Hard Knocks runs courses using sport to tackle unemployment, anti-social behaviour, crime and poor health. Our nationwide courses use challenging activities and values-based lessons to help participants take steps forward in their lives and responsibility for their actions.

Adult courses: running for eight weeks with 25 participants. Mornings are spent on the pitch or in the gym, and afternoons in the classroom. Our life and employment modules teach values, attitudes and non-technical skills with the objective of getting each participant into sustainable employment. An average of 42% of adults find full-time employment from our courses, with 81% of those sustaining this for at least three months (Source: Department of Work and Pensions).

SOHK for Schools: our schools programme uses rugby to transform the lives of children who are at risk of exclusion. The programme offers a long-term intervention to participants who start the programme at the beginning of year 9 until they reach their GCSEs or no longer need our help. With marked improvements in attendance, punctuality and behaviour (monitored alongside the school) we see 94% of the pupils sit their GCSEs, having been at risk of not completing them at all at the start of the programme.