Community Champions

Creating opportunities for youth to participate in safe and structured activities is a vital part of their development and the need is growing. With the aim of promoting social integration through sport, Community Champions provides the opportunity for people from different cultures to come together to build relationships and friendships while breaking down barriers through the prevention of violence, racism and intolerance in grassroots sports and their communities.

Project content

Community Champions (CC) is a social street football competition for young people aged 7 to 15 years old, organized locally across Europe. The project includes two seasons, with 12 teams in each community playing 10 games per season. Emphasis is placed on the attitudes and behaviours of the participants, more than on their footballing ability. Teams can win two-thirds of their points through Fair-Play, by completing social action projects in their communities or attending workshops.

Objectives

• Tackle racism, discrimination and violence in sport
• Social inclusion in and through sport
• Promote social cohesion through sport
• Promote active citizenship
• Promote voluntary activity in sport
• Promote positive involvement of parents and neighbours
• Social inclusion and acceptance of refugees and migrants
• Enhance social and bridging capital of participants
• Reduction small street crime
• Teaching valuable life skills
• Promote healthy lifestyle

Project activities

• 12 teams in each community per year, consisting of boys and girls, with and without a disability and from different backgrounds.
• Teams play 10 games per season.
• Teams will attend at least 3 workshops on racism and discrimination, fair play, and healthy lifestyles.
• 2 Kick-off events at the beginning of each season per project partner
• 2 Final events at the end of each season per project partner
• Training sessions before each season
• Teams complete regular community volunteering work.
• The winner at the end of the season is the team that has the most points (Fair-Play, Fair Support and Volunteering in community activities points and football games points combined

Expected results

• 8 delivering clubs.
• 2400 participants.
• 8 cities in 7 European countries.
• 400 social action projects delivered in the community.
• 216 educational workshops delivered.
• 1440 street football matches.
• 16 Local CC Kick-Off events.
• 16 Local CC Finals.
• 2 International project meetings and staff learning events.
• 1 EFDN Conference presentation to over 200 CSR Experts.
• 1 Project Plan
• 1 Best Practice Handbook
• 1 Practitioner's Guide
• 1 Community Champions toolkit, training resources and dissemination pack
• 1 Performance and Management Plan
• 1 Communication and Dissemination Plan
• 2 Interim Reports
• 1 Final Report

Partner