Twenty Years On
…… and our indefinite support is still a lifeline for many.
In 2025 we celebrated the twenty-year anniversary of the origins of Street Soccer Academy. It was back in 2005 that our Chief Executive, Andrew Thorp (pictured right), established a football activity to engage with the homeless community of central Manchester. 2025 gave us an opportunity to celebrate everything that has been achieved since.
Back in 2005 Manchester was a city in the grip of a homeless epidemic, evidence of which were the large number of individuals living on the streets. In addition, hidden away from view were many more sofa-surfing or living in temporary accommodation, whose lack of stable housing led many to be living chaotic lifestyles. It was at this time that Andy Thorp was challenged, as a proud Mancunian, to use his skills and talents to address the issue and in partnership with a well established Manchester charity a project, known simply as ‘Street Soccer’, was birthed. Fast forward twenty years and this project has developed into an award winning enterprise, incorporating as a limited company in 2010 and achieving UK charitable status in 2011. As an Associate of the Football Association with England Football Accreditation, SSA now deliver AQA accredited learning programmes to hundreds of individuals every year .
One of the events we hosted in 2025 to celebrate our twenty-year anniversary was the Street Soccer Academy Cup. Having been dropped from our calendar for a number of years 2025 seemed a particularly good year to bring this well-loved event back. With great expectations we hosted the tournament at Manchester Central Powerleague in Ardwick and whilst we knew the event would be a success, we were blown away by the timely reminder of the depth of the impact our work in the lives of many individuals and the overwhelming goodwill and support we receive from a variety of stakeholders, partners and sponsors. (A full report of the day can be read here).
Looking to the future there are many challenges to face and we as an organisation work tirelessly at future proofing our work. Having already navigated numerous changes within the charitable sector in our first twenty years, we are always sensitive to the changing needs of our service users. Having set out with an emphasis on helping individuals with homeless related issues, our brief now is far more expansive as we look to maintain and develop mutual-aid networks that have a more in-depth understanding of mental health and recovery based issues. We look forward to seeing what the next twenty years brings and where we can best serve our community, appreciating that everything we do is enabled by people, like yourself, who take an interest in and get behind what we do.
Beneficiaries confirming self-assessed improvements:-
Work related skills 93%, Mental health & wellbeing 95%, Ability to deal with challenges 92%, Ability to communicate with others 94%, Confidence about the future 92%, Physical health/fitness 98%
Many thanks to all those who have supported us in our work in 2025. Hopefully the above stats show that our work is having a positive impact in the lives of many and in ways that do not always grab the headlines. To be able to offer hope and confidence about the future to many individuals is a privilege and we thank you for your interest in Street Soccer Academy.
