Making a change for the better

Kate (bottom left) and her team the Paignton Panthers

Your Game All-Star Kate Wilson has been through a series of life-changing experiences over recent years.

The latest has been a work placement with Changemakers, a project to help people spread sporting ideas across the globe.

Kate describes her path to becoming a 'changemaker' in her own words...

By Kate Wilson Your Game All-Star

I left home at 16 and spent three years drifting from hostel to night shelter to friends sofas and back round them all again.

I tried going to college and entering a football academy - but it was impossible to study moving around as much as I did.

I never knew where my stuff was, or where I'd be sleeping that night. I still played and coached football as much as I could, twice a week normally.

At 19 I'd had enough and decided to get as far away from my home town as possible and moved to Devon, with no-one but myself to influence me.

A year later I was living in Torbay Foyer, a temporary housing facility for young homeless people and part of the national Foyer network.

For the first time in three years I had a temporary but settled placed to live and I set out to change my life.

I gained my FA coaching certificate and AS Levels in psychology and critical thinking, as well as some computer qualifications. I even started my own football team as I couldn't afford to join a local team.

Kate in action at the Homeless World Cup

I got involved with the Homeless World Cup by trying out for their England team - unsuccessfully.

But undeterred I entered a competition to be a journalist at the HWC in South Africa through the Foyer Federation, which I got picked for and loved every minute.

Since then I have added even more drive and enthusiasm into becoming a happy and successful person.

I started my own project Paignton Panthers, which has both male and female teams which aims to use football to help young people who are homeless, have been homeless or are from disadvantaged backgrounds change their futures engage in society, whilst empowering them to "pass it on" and help others.

I found out about BBC Your Game again through the Foyer Federation and entered my girls team, who, at that point, weren't even fully formed and had never played a match. We came second.

By default we even managed to make it through to the Your Game finals in Manchester. Since then I have been to another Homeless World Cup, and was picked to be a Your Game All-star and travelled to Namibia.

Arriving back from Africa I still continued to struggle finding paid work, until I got a phone call from Gareth (one of the Your Game organisers) asking if I would be interested in some freelance work.

I said yes before I even knew it was paid work. I am now in London working out of the Your Game offices at BBC Television Centre - and loving every minute of it.

I survived and kept out of trouble through my love of football, so it made sense to start a football project

I am working for Changemakers promoting the Sport For a Better World competition.

The 12 entrants with the best ideas will attend a prestigious global summit and three will win US $5000 (2366).

Just by entering you instantly open up your project to a global networking system, where your innovation will be viewed by possible investors, the media and to other people with the same objectives as yourself.

I have entered my own project called Paignton Panthers "Pass It On".

The concept of Pass It On comes from my own experiences. So many people helped me get my life back on track, for which I am eternally grateful.

I wanted to say thank you but it never seemed enough as I had nothing else to offer these people who's lives seemed like a far off dream to me.

So I decided to give something back, via the community and people who are in the same or similar situation I was in.

It's very hard staying out of trouble when living in hostels and sheltered accommodation as survival is the key and everyone else around you seems to survive via crime and drugs.

I survived and kept out of trouble through my love of football, so it made sense to start a football project, and when people say to me "I don't know how I can ever thank you enough".

I tell them not to but instead "pass it on" and encourage them to do so through the project helping other young people reach their potential.

A young Palestinian girl plays football in the West Bank

There are some other great projects that have already entered the Changemakers competition like "Sport in the Service of Peace: The "Twinned Peace Sport Schools" programme, which uses sport to bring together Israeli and Palestinian youth in order to bridge the divide and counteract the destructive effects of the conflict.

There are very few opportunities for Israeli and Palestinian youth to meet each other.

Accordingly, the "Twinned Peace Sport Schools" program uses sport (football or basketball) to bring together youth from opposite sides of the border.

Through joint sport activities and mixed Palestinian-Israeli teams, the youth learn to see each other as team-mates and not as enemies.

Annually, some 2,000 children are involved from 41 different communities and refugee camps, as well as some 100 coaches.

And then there's "Boxgirls Roadwork: Girls and Women Running the City who use the traditional training techniques of amateur boxing paired with urban running to create a bold new experience for girls and women."

"We are building on our experience in running fun amateur boxing programmes for young women to build a new type of running programme," said the project.

If you've got an idea for a Sport for a Better World project, email katlain9@yahoo.co.uk.