Playing football helped to keep me off the streets and on the straight and narrow, so when Greater Manchester Police asked me to endorse an initiative aimed at the city's youngsters I had no hesitation in saying yes.

I have been signed up for the `Operation Hawk' programme which, through its website at , seeks to educate children between the ages of ten and 18 about the dangers connected with hanging around on street corners.

The aim is to prevent kids from becoming involved in street crime or becoming victims of crime themselves.

The site gives hints on how to get streetwise when shopping, hanging out with friends and going to pubs and clubs. There's also advice on where to seek help if you find yourself in trouble.

From a personal perspective, I am thankful that I had football and the youth centre when I was a youngster growing up in Bermuda or I might well have found myself among the statistics.

I used to go to the youth centre close to Dellwood School from the age of nine or ten. I would skateboard round to my mate's house and then head off down to the youth centre. If I wasn't there I was playing football, so I was occupied most of the time.

To this day I still see Larry, the general manager. If you see him he will probably tell you he was the one who taught me all my skills!

Although Operation Hawk is targeted at inner city Manchester the issues it deals with are equally applicable to Bermuda. It's a social thing and happens worldwide. Every country has children who get to a certain age and begin to say `What do we do? We're bored.' If just one or two of those are able to influence the others they can end up doing something bad. It happens here in England and I'm sure it happens in Bermuda as well.

As well as the initiative with the Police, I also launched my own website, last week as part of my Grassroots Soccer Festival which is coming to the Island in June.

We held a press conference at Maine Road, home of my club Manchester City, and, what with interviews and picture opportunities, it went on for about three hours.

Initially, I had thought that the interest would just be on a local scale with newspapers from here in Manchester and back home in Bermuda covering the story, but it was picked up by the national newspapers in England and I was also featured on Sky Sports, the biggest live sports network in the UK.

It feels great to have got it up and running after all the planning that has gone into the festival. There are still one or two things that have to be sorted out but I can't wait for it to get underway in the summer.

Inbetween those last two appointments I also managed to get out my paintbrush for charity.

City, in conjunction with Rotary watches, came up with the `Turn Your Life Around' auction which offered fans the opportunity to bid for plates which had been designed and painted by players, coaches and City legends and then turned into clocks.

The auction was conducted after last Sunday's victory over Birmingham and my clock topped the bidding, eventually going for ?1,400.

It took me about ten minutes to come up with the idea for my design. Basically, I painted a Goat, a ball in the back of the net, added some blue colour to signify Manchester City and called it `Feed The Goat'.

That's where I think I had the edge of some of my team-mates because my idea was fairly obvious. Some of them were scratching their heads for a long time before they could come up with something suitable.

The bidding began on the internet and someone started things off with an offer of ?500, which I thought was amazing.

But when the auction proper started there was this one chap whose attitude seemed to be `I want that plate and nothing else'. I thought if you want it that bad I can go and draw you one at home mate.

In no time it had got up to about ?900, with two guys bidding against each other. All of sudden the first one just shouted `?1,200!' and it finally ended up at ?1,400, beating my boss Kevin Keegan into second place.

After all my off the field involvement it will be good to get back to playing again, even if it is just for the reserves. I am down to play at Birmingham City tonight and will hope to put in a good performance.

I know the manager will be playing Nicolas Anelka and Robbie Fowler up front against Chelsea on Saturday and that the best chance for me is a place on the bench, but I have to keep focused in case I am called upon at some point during the game at Stamford Bridge.