Location and general information
Access to Sport - 
Conflict victims - 
Personal developmentContext
Even in wealthy countries such as Germany and Austria, social inequality has grown over the last few decades. These growing wealth and resource gaps affect young people and their futures: once a young person has been born into a cycle of poverty, unemployment and inequality, their social mobility is limited. This not only affects access to high-quality education and employment; it also leaves young people vulnerable to violence, discrimination and crime.
AMANDLA is working to break this destructive cycle by offering a constructive alternative: the Safe‑Hub. A Safe-Hub is a place where young people have equal access to opportunities, strive to realise their full potential and dare to dream.
Project content
AMANDLA seeks to create safe spaces that combine the power of football and learning to empower young people and change lives. At the heart of the organisation’s work lies its award-winning approach to youth development: the Safe-Hub social franchise model. Safe-Hubs are designed to disrupt cycles of poverty, unemployment and inequality, especially for young people growing up in disadvantaged communities. At a Safe-Hub, young people can access services, opportunities and support from strong role models through a football-based after-school programme with a focus on health, education and employability. Each Safe-Hub provides a safe place for all young people, including those from minority groups.
Having successfully established three Safe-Hubs in South Africa, reducing crime rates and increasing employability in surrounding communities, AMANDLA is now in the process of setting up its first Safe-Hub in Europe, with its new centre in Berlin due to be completed by 2022. Offering a unique perspective on the question of how football training can be used to develop social competencies and strengthen values for young people, AMANDLA is already organising ‘train the trainer’ workshops for NGOs and football clubs (both amateur and professional). As part of this project, AMANDLA is introducing its EduFootball training curriculum to coaches as a way of fostering social change both on and off the pitch. With more than ten years of experience in youth and community development in South Africa, AMANDLA is currently testing and evaluating its proven concept in order to tailor it to a German/European context. This will allow AMANDLA to ensure the best possible training programme for participants in Berlin once its first centre outside South Africa is operational.
Objectives
- Equip German and Austrian coaches to support the development of social competencies through football coaching
- Encourage amateur and professional football structures to see value in life skills and integrate them into their football training
- Improve the pro-social behaviour of young people participating in EduFootball sessions
- Enhance internal knowledge of the project’s methods in order to effectively monitor and evaluate activities
Project activities
- ‘Train the trainer’ workshop series
- Diversification of current workshop curriculum
- 10 one-day workshops with 10 participants each (open to the public)
- 10 one-day workshops with 10 participants each (open to partner organisations across Germany and Austria)
- Internal workshop aimed at tailoring existing monitoring and evaluation system to planned activities
- 10 follow-up site visits at partner organisations
- EduFootball training with football clubs
- 20 EduFootball ‘train the trainer’ sessions (four workshops – each with five engagement sessions) with up to eight coaches across four/five football clubs
- 200 EduFootball training sessions with up to 600 girls and boys
- 20 ‘on the job’ supervisory visits to football clubs
Expected results
- AMANDLA develops a modular training curriculum that suits various groups of beneficiaries (e.g. both experienced and less experienced coaches)
- Coaches across Germany and Austria are better equipped to support the development of social competencies through football coaching
- Coaches improve their professional competencies and qualifications in the ‘football for good’ sector
- Coaches are better leaders and football coaches and can integrate life skills into training sessions
- Coaches significantly improve their ability to support players’ personal development and are more able to resolve conflicts between players
- Children have more positive interactions with each other
- Children can cope better with conflicts and setbacks
- Children have agency and take responsibility for their own actions and lives
- Professional football structures see the value of integrating life skills into accredited coaching programmes
- The youth development sector has greater awareness of the importance of football as a tool fostering personal development and systemic social change
- AMANDLA develops a monitoring and evaluation system to track the implementation of ‘Kick It But Fair’ workshop activities and post-workshop site visits
- Staff on the ground have a better understanding of how to monitor workshop activities and post-workshop site visits
Partner
