Kirklees YOT believes Sport is a useful intervention to help engage young people and give them a sense of achievement.

In 2002 The Ireti Athletic programme was started as a means of engaging young males who had a history of offending.

The programme is based around a football team which is entered into a local, open age league, based in the Kirklees area. Young males referred to the programme aged 16yrs and above will be signed to the squad and are eligible to play in the team on Saturdays. Referrals that are not yet 16yrs old are encouraged to attend the training sessions where they can be accommodated and allowed to participate in a well organised and supervised environment.

The programme is run twice a week where squad members meet for a training session, mid week and then Saturdays for league fixtures. During the off season Saturdays are used as additional training where friendly games are arranged to keep interest high.

It is during these periods that interaction with other groups is possible and in the past, community cohesion meetings with Asian and Black groups have been a huge success.

The Ireti programme is currently supervised by a Police Officer and a YOT worker, assisted by a sessional worker.

The programme has recently being recognised by the Justice Award scheme for work with young offenders and one of the supervisors made it to the last ten in the nationally recognised Daily Mirror Peoples Award.