Melbourne City Football Club (MCFC) is partnering with Corrections Victoria to deliver a first of its kind soccer coaching program to provide people in prison with skills to help break the cycle of reoffending.
The Twinning Project is an eight-week soccer coaching program being delivered to a total of 16 participants at MRC by the charitable arm of the MCFC – City of Community.
The program is delivered by coaching staff, mentors, and various guest speakers, who come from a range of cultural and professional backgrounds, each bringing different lived experiences to their coaching and sessions.
Program participants are provided with interactive training that focuses on teamwork, leadership, respectful relationships and engagement to increase employment opportunities and reduce reoffending upon release.
Corrections Victoria provides people in prison with training, education, employment services, and community reintegration programs to ensure they have the best chance of leading safe and productive lives when they return to the community.
The Victorian recidivism rate of former prisoners returning to prison under sentence within two years has remained lower than the national rate for the last five years.
MCFC (External link) is owned by Manchester City Football Club (External link), which founded the Twinning Project (External link) in the United Kingdom (UK). The Twinning Project is now delivered in over 70 prisons in the UK, United States of America, Africa and now Australia.