Synthetic sports field

Location and general information

Terminé
Location Romania
Start date 01/01/2020
End date 12/31/2020
Cost of the project € 38,000
Foundation funding € 33,000
Project identifier 2019179
Partners Luncşoara Bihorului Association
Categories Access to Sport

Context

Luncşoara Bihorului Association is active in Luncşoara village in western Romania. Over the years, it has dedicated time, resources and passion to help the local community and especially to provide the basis for the healthy growth and development of children. The association has already carried out three different projects in the village.

Project content

The association is the owner of the ground (924m2), which was bought in 2014 thanks to numerous donations. It comprises a synthetic sports field, fences and floodlights. Luncşoara secondary school is a key partner in this project.

Objectives

  • Build a synthetic sports field
  • Install surrounding fences
  • Install floodlights
  • Set up other infrastructures

Project activities

This sports field is an alternative way for the younger generations and pupils of the local school to spend their free time, and is conveniently located next to the school. As this is a rural area, the children do not have many other options for spending their free time, so this football pitch and sports area will help the integration of the community and give a chance to the children to practise football and other sports, such as handball, tennis and running.

Being located in a rural area, the sports field is meant to be an opening towards nature. The children will be involved in keeping the ground clean and watering the plants.

Expected results

Between 300 and 1,000 people, mainly children, will benefit from the project in the village and the surrounding area.

Official website : Luncşoara Bihorului Association

Partner : Luncşoara Bihorului Association

Football for development

Location and general information

Terminé
Location Czech Republic
Start date 01/01/2020
End date 12/31/2020
Cost of the project € 154,500
Foundation funding € 65,909
Project identifier 2019630
Partners INEX – Association for Voluntary Activities
Categories Access to Sport - Personal development

Context

INEX – Association for Voluntary Activities – is an NGO founded in 1991 whose primary activities are centred around the areas of international voluntary work and intercultural education.

INEX believes that volunteering and cooperation on a local and global level help to promote mutual understanding and non-violence. It creates opportunities for people to actively participate in society in order to gain knowledge and experience, and to develop their personal, civic and professional lives.

Its flagship project Football for Development engages young people through football-based informal educational activities. The project is run in various urban environments in the Czech Republic (in the regions of Prague, Usti nad Labem, Pilsen, Ostrava and Karlovy Vary), where INEX teams up with low-threshold clubs, social services, youth clubs, leisure centres, orphanages and youth detention centres.

The target group comprises children and teenagers who are at risk of social exclusion or discrimination due to their ethnic or disadvantaged social background. The beneficiaries also include disabled children and orphans. Thanks to the work of these organisations, the children and teenagers enjoy a safe space for social interaction and personal development.

The project aims to help these youngsters re-engage with society and develop the skills they need to be active. Experience shows that regular planned sports activities are effective in this regard. Football is a learning and preventive tool that uses rules and other methods to resolve conflicts without violence.

Football for Development in the Czech Republic has been running for almost 15 years, over which time it has developed a network of partners at national and international levels and represented the Czech Republic at many international events.

UEFA Foundation is supporting this project for the second year in a row.

 

Project content

Football for Development uses the Football3 concept*, which was devised by streetfootballworld and is based on the principle that fair play, inclusion and mutual respect are at least as important as the sports competition itself. Fair play includes the development of social values such as teamwork, discussion and mutual understanding. Another important aim of the concept is to develop participants’ ability to create rules and then adhere to them.

Football for Development also uses the Football for Good methodology, which is based on so-called ‘integration football drills’. These drills are linked to football training sessions and cover different social topics (e.g. drug abuse, violence, vandalism, racism) and life skills (e.g. communication, teamwork, respect, leadership skills, rules, non-violent conflict resolution) that can be used on a day-to-day basis.

[*Football3 is a methodology used by the streetfootballworld network to harness the educational potential of street football by ensuring that dialogue and fair play are integral to the game. Its overall objective is to promote life skills and empower young people to become leaders. The emphasis is on resolving conflict through dialogue.]

Objectives

  • To further develop the association’s activities in the Czech Republic and beyond, using football as a tool for education and development
  • To organise football leagues, tournaments and cultural events where people from different backgrounds can meet
  • To recruit and train youth workers and social workers to ensure the long-term stability of project
  • To deliver proper methodology and ensure a multiplier effect
  • To use training sessions and educational programmes for young people who are hard to reach with conventional training opportunities
  • To teach skills such as self-confidence, teamwork, leadership, resilience, conflict management and respect for gender equality
  • To raise the project’s public profile by organising ‘fair play days’ and increase social cohesion at different levels of society

Expected results

  • Equip grassroots organisations and projects in target communities
  • Increase self-confidence and reduce the risk of gender-based violence
  • Provide easy access for members of the target group, who usually come from difficult backgrounds
  • Provide a safe space and low-threshold access that ensures stability and continuity of participation
  • Increase the number of coaches and social workers in order to broaden the scale of the programme
  • Organise events such as fair-play league matchdays, fair-play football days, national youth gatherings, fair-play football league finals, training workshops for social workers and educational football training for children
  • Raise public awareness of social cohesion

Partner

Success Packages

Location and general information

Terminé
Location Ukraine
Start date 01/31/2020
End date 12/31/2020
Cost of the project € 150,000
Foundation funding € 100,00
Project identifier 2019021
Partners Klitschko Foundation
Categories Access to Sport - Personal development

Context

Many young people in Ukraine live in economically disadvantaged communities. Schools cannot always afford to supply their pupils with adequate equipment. As a result, children are not motivated to practise sport, which is so important to a child’s health and character. This is not only due to the lack of new and good-quality equipment, but also outdated types of games and teaching methods. PE teachers are unable to improve their skills through new innovative teaching methods and so cannot provide the children with the best education.

To meet these needs, in 2013 the Klitschko Foundation created a project called Success Packages, whose mission it is to provide all children in Ukraine with access to sport and turn their PE teachers into role models and mentors. Thanks to the project, children and teachers should realise that they can be the driving force in their communities.

Project content

The project comprises three days of training for PE teachers in the form of lectures by famous and experienced speakers that share their knowledge in the fields of:

  1. Self-identification and self-esteem through sport
  2. Learning values and applying them throughout life
  3. Nutrition and hygiene
  4. Active and healthy lifestyle choices
  5. Understanding human rights through sport
  6. Civic and moral education
  7. Supporting the delicate transition to the independence of adulthood
  8. Excursions to sports museums and sports complexes
  9. Reflections about the day – participants have a chance to share their emotions, impressions and ideas about the project

Since the project participants work in sport and education, this experience will be useful not only because of the opportunity to gain new knowledge, but also because they will be able to communicate with colleagues and like-minded people, share their own experiences, discuss innovative learning approaches and suggest new techniques.

Objectives

  • Motivate pupils to practise sport
  • Present opportunities that exist regardless of socioeconomic status
  • Break down old stereotypes about sport at school and create a new vision
  • Help PE teachers develop and promote different sports
  • Inspire teachers to be a coach and mentor for pupils
  • Motivate PE teachers to believe that they can create social change
  • Enhance the image of PE teachers as a profession

Project activities

Stage 1 Application and selection

The sports teachers and their pupils are asked to get creative and shoot a three-minute video about their usual sporting activities in school and the conditions surrounding them. The selection criteria are clear motivation, readiness to implement changes in their local community and compliance of the team with the project requirements.

Stage 2 Training programme

The PE teachers take part in a three-day workshop designed to teach them innovative methodology and educational tools as well as raise important topics for young people.

Stage 3 Local projects

When the teachers return to their communities, they share the skills and knowledge they have acquired by implementing the local project for pupils at their school, encompassing the educational and sports aspects. Teachers try themselves out in the new roles as managers of the local projects. They communicate with potential sponsors, media, and the school administration. In this way, they become an active part of the local community.

Stage 4 Delivering the success packages

After the successful execution of the local projects, 360 schools receive the success packages comprising sports equipment for various physical exercises that will make lessons exciting and diverse.

Expected results

  • 360 PE teachers from all over Ukraine will attend, in six cycles each consisting of 60 people in order to develop teamwork and effective communication among themselves.
  • The participants will receive lectures from professional coaches and workers in the field of sports and physical culture.
  • The participants will have the opportunity to gain new knowledge, communicate with colleagues and like-minded people, share their own experiences, discuss innovative learning approaches and proposed methods.
  • Participants will learn about proper nutrition, hygiene and healthy, active lifestyles.
  • Participants will understand how sport helps to boost self-esteem, overcome conflicts and problematic situations and promote self-determination for young people.
  • Participants will hold 360 training sessions involving more than 25,000 children and teenagers.

Partner

Street Football Move

Location and general information

Ongoing
Location Portugal
Start date 12/01/2019
End date 12/31/2022
Cost of the project € 106,186
Foundation funding € 70,000
Project identifier 2019346
Partners Associacao de Futebol de Bragança
Categories Access to Sport - Personal development

Context

In a recent past the first contact of children with physical activity, sport in general and particularly football was made in the streets. It doesn’t matter if you lived in a big city, a small town or a village, all the children used to go play outdoors.

It was on the street that, for millions of children, the passion for football, for sport and for movement really started to flourish.

Today we have a problem, especially in large cities, the absence of free spaces, traffic, increased violence, the reduction of children's free time and all the existing comfort (for example with television, internet and all digital technology), among other factors, seem to have condemned  the street football and the play in the street to the extinction.

On March 21st2018, the European Commission published the "Special Eurobarometer 472 on Sport Physical Activity" (with data collected in December 2017). In this study it is verified that in Portugal 68% of the population never exercise or play sports, and this percentage increased in relation to the data of 2013 in 4%. Globally, in the European Union of 28 countries there is a tendency to continue to increase the number of people who never exercise or play sports, in 2009 the figure was 39% and in 2018 the figure was 46%.

In this context, Associação de Futebol de Bragança have the responsibility of help children to access more easily to sports and we should take street football events for free to children and young people in our region.

Project content

The name of the project is "Street Football Move" means that as participant you must move and be active. The name also means that street football can be a "Movement" that can help in the fight against the sedentary lifestyles and obesity in children.

The project will take the street football in a van to the children of 12 municipalities in the northeast region of Portugal (Bragança District has a total of 4 cities, 12 small towns and 533 villages). The van will be a very important element of this project because it will be totally decorated with the name of the project, logos and images of street football. The van will have inside sport equipment like small goals, balls, markers, roller-ups and t-shirts for the players and a sound system to entertain during the matches.

To attract more and more children, we will install in the van an eSports console, with only two controllers, for the children that will be waiting for his turn to play street football, the video game in the console will be FIFA 20.

Objectives

The main goal of the project it’s to give to the children in our region a better access to sport, to move more, to be more active, to have more fun, to develop better social skills and to prevent health problems. This is also a great way of promoting physical activity, promoting football and help in children’s education using sport as a tool.

Project activities

According with a plan and a schedule organized in collaboration with municipalities and local schools, we will travel to all cities and small towns in the region and we will park the “street football van” in a very specific spot in this towns, it can be in the town centre, city park, near historical places or other previous defined place. The project team staff will prepare the place for the street football matches, prepare all the equipment (goals, balls, t-shirts, water bottles, bibs for the teams) and prepare the various playing fields and the music for the events. With the help of local football and futsal clubs’ staff, our team will organise and supervise the street football matches.

The children will came from the local schools and they will play 10 minutes matches, in teams one against the others according with the age group (Under-7, Under-11, and Under-15) if possible, all teams should have boys and girls playing together. The results of the matches don’t count for any championship or classification table.

All the participants will receive a “Street Football Move” project t-shirt and they can use the project steel bottles to drink water during the events. We will have also a video game console and a TV installed in the van to be used by the children and youth that will be waiting for their turn to play street football. They will be allowed to play a 10 minutes match in the PlayStation, in the FIFA 20 videogame in the 1 vs. 1 mode, they only can play standing and they only can play one time for each local event.

  • Street football and physical activity
  • eSports
  • Fun and entertainment
  • “Street Football Move” project gifts

Expected results

We expect to reach a total of 10 000 participants under 15 years old from the 12 municipalities of our region.

Partner

SCORING GIRLS

Location and general information

Terminé
Location Germany
Start date 03/01/2020
End date 02/28/2021
Cost of the project € 195,456
Foundation funding € 15,000
Project identifier 2019822
Partners HAWAR.help e.V.
Categories Access to Sport - Conflict victims - Personal development

Context

Girls with migration backgrounds in Germany face additional challenges in navigating the path to adulthood and becoming productive and engaged citizens. Many are caught between cultures, where they must forge a new identity in order to find their way in their social environments. This path can be especially difficult to navigate for girls, many of whom come from patriarchal societies with strict family structures.

Education, contact with peers, and play are the basis of physical well-being and the positive social development of children. Sport not only enables girls to be healthy but also develop important life skills, such as leadership, communication, conflict resolution, confidence and teamwork. Girls from migrant, refugee, and socially disadvantaged backgrounds are often excluded from taking part in organised sports activities because of financial and cultural constraints. SCORING GIRLS Bildung uses the world’s most popular sport, football, as a springboard for integration and empowerment of disadvantaged and refugee girls in Germany.

Project content

Christian, Muslim, Jewish and Yazidi girls playing football together? That is integration. That is SCORING GIRLS Bildung. Implemented in Cologne and Berlin, SCORING GIRLS Bildung uses football as a tool to empower refugee, migrant, and underprivileged girls. The project fosters healthy personal and social development by nurturing the girls’ self- confidence, intercultural awareness, and sense of independence and responsibility towards their teammates – skills that are essential in life and in becoming a responsible citizen. To watch a project video on SCORING GIRLS Bildung, please click here:

Founded in 2016 by former Bundesliga player Tuğba Tekkal, SCORING GIRLS Bildung safeguards the fundamental rights of its participants, regardless of their country of origin or how they came to Germany. Since 2016, SCORING GIRLS Bildung has gained accolades from across Germany, highlighted by the CIVIS Medien Preis in 2019 and a visit to the programme by Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2017, when she highlighted the integrative power of the project and the effective use of sport as a informal education tool.

Objectives

  • Empower girls with life skills such as self-confidence, teamwork, conflict resolution, fairness, reliability and intercultural understanding.
  • Guide girls to find their talents and strengths, so that they can successfully take the next step into either the labour market or furthering their education.
  • Strengthen the girls’ leadership qualities, so that they are able to play an active role society and be fully engaged citizens.
  • Media coverage: 1,000,000 people become aware of the project through newspaper articles and social media.

Project activities

SCORING GIRLS Bildung is a holistic sport-based integration and empowerment programme for 120 refugee, migrant and German girls in Cologne and Berlin. Each week throughout the year, the participants take part in football training sessions, educational support, and soft-skill development.

Activity 1: Participant outreach and relationship building

Trusting relationships with the girls and their families are a prerequisite for engaging girls who would otherwise not take part in athletic activities. The project begins with HAWAR.help social workers entering refugee and underprivileged communities to build relationships with the girls’ parents. Over multiple visits and conversations, families are convinced of the benefits of their daughters’ participating in SCORING GIRLS Bildung. Once the girls start the programme, relationships with family members continue to be an important aspect, with the trainers giving the families periodic updates on the girls’ well-being.

Activity 2: Weekly football-based educational programme

Bi-weekly training sessions are held for 120 girls between the ages of 12 and 25 in Berlin and Cologne. A typical session opens with a group discussion in which the girls share important events in their lives and talk about what is going on at school. This gives the trainer and project manager the opportunity to see whether any of the girls need additional support and to identify themes that can be used for future training sessions. The girls then take part in football drills where they learn to follow instructions and to communicate with one another. Drills that incorporate the learning of German and school subjects such as maths are also used. Each training session concludes with a short practice game and a review of the session.

Activity 3: Educational support
After the football-based activity, individual support is provided to the girls as need. The participants receive help with their homework and school projects. The girls’ families can also ask for help with booking appointments with a doctor, a legal advisor or at the visa office.

Activity 4: Community building and integration activities

To strengthen the bonds between the girls and to expose them to different aspects of German society, excursions and workshops are carried out. Each excursion includes an educational element and gives the girls the opportunity to have fun as a group in a new environment.

Activity 5: Annual SCORING GIRLS Bildung tournament

Each year, the SCORING GIRLS Bildung tournament brings the group together with more than 300 community members, for a day of inter-cultural exchange, activities and fun. Prominent personalities have attended the event in the past, including German TV moderator Anne Will.

Expected results

  • Beneficiaries received training in various topics: self-confidence, teamwork, conflict resolution, fairness, reliability and intercultural understanding (activities 1, 2, 4)
  • Beneficiaries received meaningful educational support (activity 3)
  • Beneficiaries’ leadership qualities are strengthened (activity 2)
  • 1,000,000 people become aware of the project

Partner

Social-sports schools in Europe

Location and general information

Ongoing
Location Romania, Italy, United Kingdom, Portugal, Spain
Start date 10/01/2020
End date 06/30/2022
Cost of the project € 200,000
Foundation funding €more than 50% financed by the Foundation for Children
Project identifier 2019360
Partners Real Madrid Foundation (RMF)
Categories Access to Sport - Personal development

Context

The social-sports schools programme is aimed at children (mixed teams of boys and girls) aged 5 to 18 in Europe who are in difficult socio economical situations, likely to interrupt their education for reasons of poverty and the lack of learning opportunities, or face various risks or behavioural problems. The RMF works in more than 100 countries, in this specific case, the focus is on European social-sports schools in five different countries: Romania, Italy, United Kingdom, Portugal and 14 social-sports schools in shelter homes in Madrid (Spain).

The theme of marginalization is common to all the European locations running the social-sports schools programme. The beneficiaries are vulnerable families, children in difficult socio-economic situations and with poor education prospects, teenagers with youth distress problems, minority groups, children at risk of social exclusion, victims of violence and children living in shelters.

 

Project content

The RMF develops Real Madrid FC’s social and cultural awareness programmes. It has been applying the principle of teaching values through sports since 1998. RMF contributes to the holistic development of the beneficiaries by means of sports and socio-educational activities adapted to their needs, such as: promoting afterschool activities; seminars raising awareness about education, gender equality or other issues; language classes; check-ups; psychological counselling; and supplementary nutrition.

Objectives

The main objective is to promote the values inherent in sport, both in Spain and abroad, and use sport an educational tool that contributes to children’s development. The project additionally promotes social integration for marginalised sectors of the population, while enabling participants to develop their knowledge of football, personal balance and interpersonal relationships.

UEFA Foundation for Children funds will permit the sustainability of the programme for the benefit of 600 children. The RMF wants to

  •  foster values and positive living habits through the use of sport;
  •  benefit children and youth through the practice of sports, to assist in their physical and psychological development;
  •  provide the beneficiaries with outdoor activities, such as tournaments with other shelter homes and social sport schools;
  •  benefit and maintain the staff working on the programme;
  •  benefit the staff involved in the activities.

Project activities

All RMF projects have a sports component; however, the projects do not aim for a high-level performance and are not used for scouting or as a talent pool. They aim to boost education through sport. One tool to reach that is the sports methodology called ‘For a real education: values and sports’. Developed over the last 20 years, it covers the whole spectrum of the RMF’s capabilities: physical and sports training combined with personal and psychological development. The RMF methodology is applied to the two sports that are developed in the social-sports schools: football and basketball. The aim is to train coaches who will then pass on the values to the beneficiaries. Local trainers are also provided with all the necessary teaching materials. During the sessions, various values are related to social, educational, physical-motor, technical-tactical skills, and rules.

In addition, RMF organises the Copa Alma, a 4-day social tournament that promotes coexistence between students and the exchange of experience among their coaches. The tournament includes sports, cultural and social activities and acts as an educational tool by rewarding the application of values in the competition. It has a direct influence on the social and interpersonal skills of the beneficiaries since many of them are exposed to an international atmosphere for the first time. Up to now, RMF has held six tournaments in different cities in collaboration with local partners. Participants are 12 years old who are already enrolled in the social-sports schools in Europe.

Expected results

In general, UEFA foundation funds will contribute to the holistic development of the beneficiaries by supporting the sustainability of the sports and social activities in the next two seasons. It will also contribute to the next Copa Alma.

In parallel to that, some expected results are:

  • Education through football and social activities to help the children integrate
  • Help the individuals see their situation in a different way; providing a variety of ways to solve problems and encouraging a positive motivational experience
  • lncrease self-esteem and self-efficacy in the children and help reduce the risk of social exclusion

Partner

Sport and play for inclusion and integration

Location and general information

Terminé
Location Bulgaria
Start date 01/01/2020
End date 12/31/2020
Cost of the project € 51,859
Foundation funding € 25,930
Project identifier 2019403
Partners World at Play
Categories Children with disabilities - Conflict victims - Personal development

Context

In 2016, 6,447 unaccompanied refugee children, mostly from Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, applied for asylum in Bulgaria. With the adoption of a new law on foreigners that came into force in 2017, the temporary detention of children, including unaccompanied and separated children, was legalised, contrary to international human rights standards. Children applying for asylum were moved to refugee centres, where they lived in the same space as adults and faced a huge risk of violence and abuse.

In 2017, World at Play was invited by Caritas Bulgaria, part of the Caritas international aid organisation, to work on a programme to support and integrate refugee children and young people in the Harmanli and Sofia areas.

During a preliminary fact-finding project, it quickly became evident that there were tensions between the refugees and local communities. The local population itself faced difficulties related to low incomes and a lack of opportunities and felt excluded and marginalised due to an increased focus on refugees.

World at Play started to build relationships between young locals and young refugees. Initially working with them in separate groups, it then started integrating them into each other’s games and showed how, through the power of sport and play, individuals can engage with one another with respect and care as equals, regardless of gender, ethnicity and background.

Project content

World at Play believes that access to sport, and the freedom to play without fear, prejudice or intimidation, is an integral part of every childhood.

World at Play has been running specially designed sport and play programmes since 2004. Its games – often requiring little or no equipment – rely on specially selected coaches and trainers who have been extensively trained to:

  • work with children and young people who have experienced trauma and conflict;
  • work with marginalised children and ostracised communities;
  • work with children who have suffered abuse and physical or emotional violence
  • work with disabled children and young people.

World at Play primarily uses common, well-known games and sports such as football, hockey, frisbee, cricket and baseball, but it has a handbook of nearly 150 games that enable children to be active and have fun while also learning about teamwork, cooperation, inclusion, support, gender equality and communication.

Caritas Bulgaria is directly involved in World at Play activities as a local partner of the Harmanli refugee centre and the Voenna Rampa and Ovcha Kupel refugee centres in Sofia. Their staff and volunteers are trained to deliver World at Play programmes.

Objectives

  • To improve the lives of vulnerable children in society, e.g. socially underprivileged children, Roma communities, disabled children and unaccompanied refugee children
  • To promote gender equality in communities where females are often treated unfairly
  • To use games to promote teamwork
  • To strengthen academic knowledge, particularly language skills, through play
  • To encourage participation of young refugee victims of trauma, using sport and cricket as a starting point to engage with them, lift them out of depression and find common ground to work from
  • To use music therapy in rehabilitation centres to improve the self-confidence of disabled children

Project activities

  • Sport and play sessions for refugees from a diverse range of backgrounds
  • Inclusive play sessions that emphasise gender equality
  • Skill development sessions for community leaders within the refugee camp
  • Donation of equipment to ensure sessions are sustainable

Expected results

  • Individual engagement and respect will be fostered between the different communities, regardless of gender and heritage.
  • Physical activities will benefit health and well-being.
  • Partner organisation staff will develop their sports coaching skills and be empowered to deliver future sessions in order to make the project sustainable.
  • Individuals who have faced barriers to participation in the past will be welcome at sessions as equals, in line with long-established World at Play principles.
  • Over 100 male and 35 female participants will attend World at Play sessions.

 

Partner

Child and Parent Day

Location and general information

Terminé
Location The Netherlands
Start date 09/01/2020
End date 10/31/2020
Cost of the project € 50,000
Foundation funding € 25,000
Project identifier 2019027
Partners Edwin van der Sar Foundation
Categories Access to Sport - Children with disabilities - Personal development

Context

The Child and Parent Day is an annual event for families with children 5–12 years old with brain injuries, including their parents and siblings. When it comes to regular education and sport, these children often fall behind. On the outside, most of these children look like any other; however, their brain injuries cause delays in learning and social-emotional development. This leads to exclusion, bullying and isolation. Many of these children have no suitable school or education programme. And they simply have no friends. Ultimately, they don’t go to school or sports club at all and many of them just stay at home with their parents. Which has a huge impact on their development and their day-to-day family life.

Project content

The purpose of the Child and Parent Day is to help these children make a connection, to encourage social interaction among children with the same background and help them make friends through sport. In addition, it encourages knowledge sharing and recognition for the parents. They can take part in workshops and lectures about education, rehabilitation, family support, legislation and regulations.

Objectives

  • Improve self-confidence, self-reliance and social contacts

Project activities

The Child and Parent Day comprises a variety of sports activities, adapted to the limitations of the children. The games are supervised by expert sports coaches. There are some traditional sports such as football, basketball and hockey, but also boxing lessons, climbing walls and a cycle cross track. In addition, there are all kinds of cognitive games and challenges to stimulate their brains.

Expected results

Tailor-made education, rehabilitation and leisure activities for children with brain damage.

Partner

Hapoel Katamon’s Neighbourhoods League

Location and general information

Terminé
Location Israel
Start date 01/01/2020
End date 12/31/2020
Cost of the project € 304,000
Foundation funding € 100,000
Project identifier 2019337
Partners Katamon Moadon Ohadim
Categories Access to Sport - Conflict victims - Personal development

Context

The poorest city in Israel, Jerusalem is a microcosm of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with hardly any positive contact between the two populations. A lack of communication is significant in the sports sector.

Arab children and teenagers in Jerusalem desperately need improved formal and informal education, as well as leisure activities and proper facilities.

Hapoel Katamon Jerusalem (HKJFC) feels that if their work can make a difference in Jerusalem it must be possible everywhere else, including in areas with less tension.

Project content

The Neighbourhoods League project is run in the greater Jerusalem area and shows the marginalised Jewish and Arab children from the east and west of the city a different reality that radiates potency, professionalism, optimism, joy and hope.

Most Jewish youngsters taking part in the project also come from poor neighbourhoods. They need help overcoming their prejudices, stereotypes and alienation from Arabs. Gender-wise, HKJFC are a pioneer in girls' and women's football and have the only female team in the city. The club obliges any school that joins the project with a boys' group to also set up a girls’ group. HKJFC’s teen girls have just won the national girls’ cup.

In addition to the female players in its professional, recreational and community programmes, the club promotes female coaches, managers and employees who also serve as role models. HKJFC is the first and only professional football club in Israel with an elected female chair and the only football club in Jerusalem, and one of the few in Israel, to employ female coaches. In the Neighbourhoods League we require any school that wishes to enrol its boys' team in our programme to set up a girls' team as well.

Objectives

  • Bring children from different religions, nationalities and backgrounds together, in order to break down walls and stigmas
  • Use football to promote values such as: tolerance, anti-violence, anti-racism and women’s empowerment
  • Give children from underprivileged backgrounds a better education and high-quality sports activities
  • Promote women’s football in Jerusalem

Project activities

Learning centres: The club has set up unique learning centres within schools, holding 80 meetings annually. Each week, before practice, these Neighbourhoods League learning centres hold sessions to further the children’s learning skills. With the help of the learning centre staff and volunteers, the youngsters work on their homework, with an emphasis on maths, science and English. Sometimes the children utilise the time to work on a specifically requested subject or task. The centre also includes social activities, to enable the children to work better as a group, become friends and overcome problems that occur during practice.

Football training: Two football practices geared at children aged 9–14 are held each week during the October–June school year. The teams, each with its own coach, enable children to play organised football, learn skills and improve their fitness, as well as consolidate social skills. There are no try-outs: all children are welcome to take part.

Festive tournaments: Regular festive tournaments encourage fair play and sportsmanship. Each month, all the girls’ teams and all the boys’ teams take part in festive tournaments. Games are played simultaneously and have no referees – it is up to the participants to sort out their differences by themselves, which changes the whole perspective. The tournaments bring children from a variety of backgrounds, cultures, and religions together, with the common language of football.

One-on-one sessions: The core essence of HKJFC’s P2P approach. Our decade of binational activities has taught us that a substantial amount of time needs to be devoted to additional face-to-face work with binational teams. Rather than playing Arabs against Jews, the teams are mixed and play games together. This is in addition to taking part in the league.

Expected results

The project invests a major effort in directly addressing and reducing conflict between the Arabs and Jews of Jerusalem. Its 750 children, 30 coaches, 20 volunteers and 10 tutors are being trained in conflict mitigation and management, to be used by them on the field. Football improves the atmosphere by setting a clear set of rules in a complex environment framed by a never-ending conflict.

It ensures impartiality and teaches the youngsters the principles of fairness, mutual respect and the equal rights of other people, fostering a bubble of non-violence, which in turn radiates out to the community at large. It bypasses socioeconomic differences, addressing the marginalised, regardless of whether the individual can pay, and occupies the youngsters in positive and meaningful activities that promote conflict mitigation, rather than behaviours and dynamics that perpetuate conflict and exclusion. It fosters good human relations and contributes to a healthier society and the reduction of stress. Our main goals are to promote dialogue through football and education and empower the girls of Jerusalem to play football.

Partner

GoFitba

Location and general information

Terminé
Location Scotland
Start date 02/01/2020
End date 03/31/2021
Cost of the project €70,596
Foundation funding €33,448
Project identifier 2019015
Partners Scottish Football Partnership Trust
Categories Access to Sport - Personal development

Context

The GoFitba project invests in young, vulnerable primary schoolchildren living in poverty across deprived areas of Scotland. It aims to maximise their future prospects for health and well-being by providing free-to-access fun football activities, health education and hot, healthy meals.

Project content

GoFitba is a 12-week football-based health and well-being project that provides opportunities for Scotland’s most disadvantaged primary schoolchildren living in poverty to take part in a free-to-access, fun sport and health education initiative delivered by partner community football clubs across the country.

GoFitba takes a holistic approach to teach children the benefits of regular physical activity within a football environment, with each structured session providing the national target of one hour of moderate physical activity each day. During the second hour of each session, the children take part in an interactive educational journey with their very own learning journal to explore the benefits of leading a healthy lifestyle through diet and nutrition. The final component of each session sees the children being served a hot, healthy meal which crucially ensures the children are being fed outside school hours, helping to tackle food poverty. The project also allows these children to spend some social time with their peers in a safe environment, helping with issues of integration, social inclusion and community development with the wider family unit as parents and guardians are invited to participate in the project during week 12.

Objectives

  • To provide disadvantaged primary schoolchildren with opportunities to take part in free-to-access fun football activities.
  • To educate the project participants on the importance of being active in their daily lives and to use the GoFitba football hour as a vehicle to improve their knowledge and understanding, self-esteem and confidence.
  • To make use of the interactive GoFitba learning journal to educate the project participants on the importance of leading a healthier lifestyle through diet and nutrition and to increase the children’s confidence of working in groups.
  • To provide each participant with a hot, healthy meal at the end of each weekly session to help reinforce their learning on diet and nutrition and to tackle food poverty by providing nutritious food outside school hours.
  • To host a showcase event at the conclusion of the 12-week session for the participants and their parents/guardians and school teachers. This element of the project is geared at extending the importance of leading an active, healthy lifestyle through exercise, diet and nutrition to the wider family unit. It also helps to bring the participants, their families, school teachers and the project coaches together to strengthen the links between the local football club and the broader community.

Project activities

Hour 1 - Football and fitness session

Session structure:

  • Structured warm-ups and cool-downs
  • Weekly football themes – passing, dribbling, technique and control, shooting, defending and football agility
  • Fun game-related activities
  • Team-building and problem-solving activities focusing on improving confidence, communication, team-work, decision-making, respect for others and developing participants’ cognitive skills
  • Small-sided games – fun and competitive play and freedom of expression

 

Hour 2 – Positive nutritional messages and healthy, hot, homemade meal

Session structure:

  • The Eatwell Guide
  • Food groups and their purpose
  • Water and hydration
  • Energy values
  • Healthy cooked meal
  • Personal hygiene – washing hands and table manners

Expected results

  • Provide opportunities for 400 young, disadvantaged children to take part in the GoFitba project, helping them to become happier, healthier and more engaged through the delivery of 9,600 individual hours of football activity and health education
  • Encouraging and enabling the inactive to be active
  • Developing physical confidence and competence from the earliest age
  • Improving opportunities to participate, progress and achieve in sport
  • Supporting the well-being and resilience of communities through physical activity and sport
  • Tackling food inequality

 

Link to the project: www.gofitba.com

 

Partner

Football for Employability

Location and general information

Terminé
Location Romania, Hungary, Ireland, UK
Start date 02/01/2019
End date 05/31/2021
Cost of the project €193,600
Foundation funding € 105,757
Project identifier EUR-0149
Partners FedEx, streetfootballworld, Sport 4 Life UK, Policy Center for Roma and Minorities, Oltalom, Sport Against Racism Ireland
Categories Employability - Personal development - Sponsors

Context

Football provides an opportunity to address young adults struggling to enter the job market and help them through education, activities to improve job-seeking skills, vocational training and personal development programmes. This project aligns with the Football for Unity concept that the UEFA Foundation for Children and streetfootballworld will implement together during the UEFA EURO 2020 competition. For the first time ever, the tournament will be played in 12 European cities and will see the activation of local initiatives using football to promote social development. The programme will be delivered in four locations (Bucharest, Budapest, Dublin, Birmingham) aiming deliver demonstrable results by bringing youngsters closer to education, employment and training (EET).

This project is being run in close collaboration with streetfootballworld and FedEx.

Project content

The target group and activities in the four locations are broken down as follows:

Birmingham, UK - Sport 4 Life (S4L UK)

S4L UK provides the opportunity for disadvantaged young people aged 12–29 to prepare for and move into sustained education, employment or training by improving their employability and key life skills, through sports-themed personal development programmes. The two main pillars of its work are the TEENS programme (personal development programme for socially excluded 12–16 year-olds) and the NEETS (Not in Education, Employment, or Training) programme (employability and personal development programme for 16–29 year-olds). This project will allow S4L UK to strengthen its actions by scaling the methodologies and approaches of the ‘Team up! toolkit’, resulting in extended reach and higher overall impact numbers.

Bucharest, Romania - Policy Center for Roma and Minorities (PCRM)

The organisation enables youngsters aged 7–18 to play an active role in society and promotes inclusion through sustainable educational and football-based programmes. A small-scale employability programme called the ‘Alternative Education Club’, provides workshops and non-formal education through arts and sports. This project will allow the PCRM to consolidate its activities and offer this programme to greater numbers of marginalised young people.

Budapest Hungary - Oltalom Sport Association (OSA)

Oltalom has developed football-based and educational programmes to help young people aged 16–30 integrate into society. In addition to English lessons, a social support and counselling programme helps these young people to draft CVs and cover letters and provides mock job interviews to improve their interview techniques. This project will enable the organisation to consolidate its employability programme.

Dublin, lreland - Sport Against Racism lreland (SARI)

SARI was founded as an NGO in 1997 to support cultural integration and social inclusion in lreland by using sport, particularly football, as a medium to combat racism, sectarianism, homophobia and other forms of discrimination. As the organisation has grown, SARI has developed a youth leadership programme that provides young leaders with the necessary skills to reach their full potential. This project will enable SARI to strengthen its employability programmes within the youth leadership programme and enable more young people to transition to employment, education and training.

 

Objectives

  • The project will utilise the TeamUp! toolkit, which was the outcome of a pan-European project supported by Erasmus+ and delivered within the framework of the European Commission's Strategic Partnerships for Youth.The toolkit:
    • delivers an innovative approach to one of Europe's most pressing social challenges: youth unemployment;
    • identifies and disseminates best practices and impact-proven methodologies to key players in the sectors of sports, youth employability and non-formal education;
    • arms organisations with a comprehensive understanding of how to develop and run football-based employability programmes;
    • targets young adults not in education, employment or training and equips them with the skills they need to build new paths towards a sustainable livelihood.
  • This initiative brings youth in the four different European countries closer to employment and further education by providing capacity building opportunities for local community organisations and supporting local football for employability programmes. Football serves as a low threshold engagement tool for the local, disadvantaged youth that are difficult to reach through other methods of communication, and as methodology to foster soft skills for increased employability of the participants. This is supplemented by specific hard skill and job skill training sessions, e.g. CV writing workshops, language classes, etc. After the first project phase in 19/20, the further need has been identified by the project consortium for further capacity development modules and specific training programmes on how to successfully implement specific employability activities. The 20/21 project will address this need.

Project activities

FOOTBALL AND EMPLOYABILITY PROGRAMMES:

The partner organisations implement football and employability programmes in disadvantaged communities. Employability activities are structured around three skill areas:

  • Soft skills for employability– personal attributes needed to operate successfully in society
  • Job seeking skills – practical skills for finding and applying for a job
  • Hard skills – qualifications needed to perform a specific job

CAPACITY BUILDING AND ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT:

The participating organisations will, guided by streetfootballworld and the expert organisation Sport4Life UK, develop organisational action plans to implement and extent their employability programmes.

Expected results

A three-stage impact measurement process represents the three main milestones in the participant’s journey

  • Engagement: number of young people engaged in the programme
  • Increased employability: number of young people who successfully gain skills and motivation
  • Progression: number of young people moved from ‘not in education, employment or training’ to ‘in education, employment or training’.

Partner

Sports facilities in Belskoye Ustye orphanage

Location and general information

Terminé
Location Russia
Start date 04/01/2019
End date 09/30/2019
Cost of the project €34,620
Foundation funding €29,320
Project identifier EUR-2018751
Partners Step Up Orphan Opportunity Centre
Categories Access to Sport - Children with disabilities - Personal development

Context

There is huge concern about the abandonment of children in Russia, most of whom are children with disabilities. More than half of people with Down’s syndrome in Russia grow up in orphanages and nearly 30% of Russian children with any type of disability live in orphanages.

The village of Belskoye Ustye is 20km from the nearest town and orphanage residents are restricted in their interactions almost exclusively to their peer group and carers. The region including the surrounding villages and the nearby town of Porkhov is economically depressed, suffers from large outward migration and has few opportunities for young people.

During the summer of 2018, the huge positive impact of football on the children was discovered after some training sessions with professional coaches were organised, enabling tthe joy of playing football together. It was then decided to create a football programme that will provide a rare source of recreation to both children from the orphanage and children from the local community, giving them an opportunity to socialise and to learn important skills.

Project content

The football project of the Step Up Orphan Opportunity Centre, funded by the UEFA Foundation for Children, aims to include orphans and disabled children in society, outside the orphanage. The project will help the children from the orphanage to go some way towards overcoming their severe isolation, facilitating their integration with locals and helping them to develop key communication skills. Moreover, the project will seek to involve children growing up in the village of Belskoye Ustye, the surrounding villages and the nearby town of Porkhov.

To achieve that aim, a football field will be built, and a methodology for football workshops for children with disabilities will be created so that volunteer coaches can run the activities.

Objectives

  • To give children from the orphanage and the rural community access to sport education (guided by professional coaches and trainers).
  • For children from the orphanage to socialise with children from the surrounding rural areas.
  • To improve the health and psychological conditions of the children from the region.
  • For teachers from the orphanage to gain skills as football coaches.
  • For teachers from the orphanage to improve their ability to support the personal development of the children and to integrate specific skills into the football training sessions.
  • To develop a specific methodology for football workshops for children with disabilities.
  • To build a football pitch.

Expected results

  • Football pitch built.
  • Football training sessions provided for the teachers at the orphanage.
  • Football activities provided for the children of the orphanage.
  • Football events run for the children from the orphanage and the children from the local community.

Partner

Success Packages

Location and general information

Terminé
Location Ukraine
Start date 02/01/2019
End date 12/31/2019
Cost of the project €150,000
Foundation funding €100,000
Project identifier EUR - 2018413
Partners Klitschko Foundation
Categories Access to Sport - Personal development

Context

The bombing in Afrin and Ghouta in Syria, and the escalating violence in parts of Afghanistan is driving people to flee. According to the UNHCR, 21,887 people have crossed the Mediterranean since the beginning of the year, one-third of whom have arrived on Greek islands. The number of new arrivals was 33% higher in the first four months of 2018 than during the same period in 2017. The emergency reception centres for refugees and migrants are overcrowded. At the same time, national organisations and NGOs are forced to close shelters and programmes for the youngest of those affected by war, conflict, migration and displacement because of administrative bottlenecks. Homelessness among asylum seekers has become an issue because of inadequate procedures which do not guarantee pre-registration.

In 2017, Terre des Hommes provided safe accommodation for 361 vulnerable families and young people. It currently manages 19 apartments in Ioannina. As part of the same protection package, Terre des Hommes has provided legal counselling and representation to over 1,250 refugees and migrants, and mental health and psychological services to more than 1,500. In addition, access to medical services has been ensured in 70% of all cases.

Project content

Terre des Hommes will continue its mission of supporting Greek authorities and civil society by assisting with the emergency reception of refugees and migrants, supporting their effective integration and helping to build integrated and sustainable child protection systems.

The accommodation programme run for nine months, from April to December 2018, and will be implemented in Thessaloníki and Ioannina.

Objectives

  • To expand the existing accommodation programme.
  • To provide the bare minimum of accommodation and cash.
  • To guarantee a range of protection services, including daily social work, protection activities, legal counselling and interpreting.
  • To ensure children have access to adequate child protection services.

Project activities

The project aims to increase access to safe accommodation and social care in Ioannina and Thessaloníki by expanding its existing arrangements to make 400 beds available in northern Greece. The beneficiaries in Ioannina will have access to a large community centre, which will be the venue for cooking events, language classes, Greek film nights, discussion groups, arts and craft events and child-friendly spaces.

In this way, Terre des Hommes will be supporting vulnerable children with caregivers by providing them with accommodation, and giving older unaccompanied minors (males aged 16–17) somewhere where they can live independently.

Furthermore, the project will focus on psychological support for refugee children, young people and their parents by using games, structured creative work, informal learning, theatre, sport, music, reading and any other activities that will improve self-esteem, trust, cooperation, well-being, safety and life skills.

Expected results

Terre des Hommes is the only remaining international child-focused NGO in northern Greece. The housing programme is essential to ensure urgent action to protect migrant children, prevent child exploitation and provide humanitarian aid to children and their families.

Partner

Paths to Equity

Location and general information

Terminé
Location Spain
Start date 09/01/2018
End date 12/31/2019
Cost of the project €38,488
Foundation funding €25,988
Project identifier EUR-2018553
Partners Ayuda en Acción
Categories Access to Sport - Personal development

Context

In the Sant Ildefons neighbourhood, a significant number of children and teenagers are at risk of poverty and social exclusion. Their personal development and educational success is conditioned by their families’ socio-economic vulnerability, the lack of educational opportunities, and their national, cultural or ethnic origin. These youngsters’ situation determines and limits equal access to educational innovation projects as well as to leisure activities.

Ayuda en Acción is trying to resolve these difficulties in partnership with the neighbourhood’s primary and secondary schools. Since 2013, it has been running a social involvement programme for children and families at risk of social exclusion. Building a community founded upon solidarity, dignity, equality and mutual respect, Ayuda en Acción improves the lives of around 11,000 children in Spain.

Project content

Ayuda en Acción provides a full range of activities – from school meals and educational innovation projects to employability options for the families, and has developed a project called Paths to Equity, that focuses on sport and leisure activities for children at risk of social exclusion. This project seeks ways to ensure children rights to development and well-being and will be supported by the UEFA Foundation for the 2018/19 academic year and the first quarter of the 2019/20 academic year.

Objectives

  • The project comprises initiatives in six schools with two objectives:
  • Promoting equal opportunities for children at risk of poverty by means of informal education during leisure time
  • Teaching and encouraging the practice of an accessible and necessary sport such as swimming

Project activities

School outings

Six schools will schedule activities during the academic year, such as day trips to various destinations, with a special focus on natural sites. School camps will also be held, offering students the experience of leaving their neighbourhood and spending a few days in nature and practising leisure activities, many of them linked to sport. The school's curriculum includes environmental and sustainability activities.

 

Extracurricular sports activities

It may seem paradoxical, but many children in Sant Ildefons cannot swim, despite the proximity of the beach. Swimming classes are therefore essential for these children. Three schools will receive funding to cover the costs of these extracurricular activities and transport.

Although the schools have a small budget for outings and extracurricular activities, it is clearly insufficient to cover the total cost, so a contribution from families is required. However, the parents cannot afford to pay. The funding therefore ensures the activities can be held.

Expected results

  • Improvement of children’s well-being in Sant Ildefons through social activities and sports
  • 6 schools plan activities during this school year:
  • CEIP Verdaguer, CEIP Montserrat, CEIP Sant Ildefons and CEIP Torre de la Miranda (primary schools)
  • IES Cornellà and IES Maria Aurèlia Capmany (secondary schools)
  • 827 pupils taking part in the project
  • Paths to Equity will support these schools and monitor how the funds are used

Partner

Safe-Hub – EduFootball

Location and general information

Closed
Location Germany/Austria
Start date 01/12/2018
End date 03/01/2021
Cost of the project €221,796
Foundation funding €74,486
Project identifier EUR - 2018748
Partners AMANDLA, Oliver Kahn Foundation, DFL Foundation, Beisheim Foundation, Coca-Cola Foundation
Categories Access to Sport - Conflict victims - Personal development

Context

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

  1. Equip German and Austrian coaches to support the development of social competencies through football coaching
  2. Encourage amateur and professional football structures to see value in life skills and integrate them into their football training
  3. Improve the pro-social behaviour of young people participating in EduFootball sessions
  4. Enhance internal knowledge of the project’s methods in order to effectively monitor and evaluate activities

Project activities

  1. ‘Train the trainer’ workshop series
    1. Diversification of current workshop curriculum
    2. 10 one-day workshops with 10 participants each (open to the public)
    3. 10 one-day workshops with 10 participants each (open to partner organisations across Germany and Austria)
    4. Internal workshop aimed at tailoring existing monitoring and evaluation system to planned activities
    5. 10 follow-up site visits at partner organisations
  1. EduFootball training with football clubs
    1. 20 EduFootball ‘train the trainer’ sessions (four workshops – each with five engagement sessions) with up to eight coaches across four/five football clubs
    2. 200 EduFootball training sessions with up to 600 girls and boys
    3. 20 ‘on the job’ supervisory visits to football clubs

Expected results

  1. AMANDLA develops a modular training curriculum that suits various groups of beneficiaries (e.g. both experienced and less experienced coaches)
  2. Coaches across Germany and Austria are better equipped to support the development of social competencies through football coaching
  3. Coaches improve their professional competencies and qualifications in the ‘football for good’ sector
  4. Coaches are better leaders and football coaches and can integrate life skills into training sessions
  5. Coaches significantly improve their ability to support players’ personal development and are more able to resolve conflicts between players
  6. Children have more positive interactions with each other
  7. Children can cope better with conflicts and setbacks
  8. Children have agency and take responsibility for their own actions and lives
  9. Professional football structures see the value of integrating life skills into accredited coaching programmes
  10. The youth development sector has greater awareness of the importance of football as a tool fostering personal development and systemic social change
  11. AMANDLA develops a monitoring and evaluation system to track the implementation of ‘Kick It But Fair’ workshop activities and post-workshop site visits
  12. Staff on the ground have a better understanding of how to monitor workshop activities and post-workshop site visits

Partner

RISE – Beyond goals

Location and general information

Closed
Location Greece
Start date 01/15/2019
End date 01/14/2020
Cost of the project €246,225
Foundation funding €198,020
Project identifier EUR‐2018738
Partners ActionAid Hellas
Categories Access to Sport - Conflict victims - Personal development

Context

The beneficiaries are young people between 12 and 18 years old that live in and around the disadvantaged Kolonos district of Athens. Their families face financial issues and are at risk of social exclusion, with limited opportunities for engaging in athletic activities (lack of motivation or financial resources, gender stereotypes). Some of these young people face high stress, domestic violence, social exclusion and a lack of creative and life-skills education, which leads to fewer opportunities. The challenges they face can lead to depression, aggressive behaviour, misbehaviour, academic failure, inability to interact with other youngsters, a lack of self‐esteem and a lack of guidance. Family ties are often broken and the link to the community can be problematic.

Project content

The RISE project is a youth empowerment through football programme, led by international football player Dimitris Papadopoulos. It provides children with life values and skills, and enables them to have a better life, dignity and opportunities to develop themselves and their communities. Football players are role models for young people and can empower them to fight for a better life. Their role will be crucial in implementing and disseminating the project.

ActionAid is working closely with football clubs, national football associations and the Super League at national level to raise awareness of the methodology and potential of football as a driver for change and development in the communities.

Objectives

  • Empower disadvantaged youth in vulnerable areas by helping them to gain skills, providing access to opportunities and building resilience that will help them improve their quality of life while fighting poverty and social exclusion through football.
  • Support young people, so that they own a community-led programme in all stages, from design to implementation.
  • Help footballers to become agents of change for a society of diversity, mutual respect and solidarity.
  • Empower young members of the football team to become agents of change for a society with diversity, mutual respect and solidarity.
  • Support the multiplication of programme methodology and principles and influence other institutions’ agendas.
  • Empower members of the youth club to develop sustainable valuable life skills.

Project activities

FOOTBALL

Football3 match with famous national football players to ‘lead by example’

Dimitris Papadopoulos and other famous football players (men and women) will demonstrate that, by changing the rules of the game, we can change ourselves and our society for the better.

Football matches with mixed teams

Bring together civil society associations, football clubs and athletics associations to share, play together, discuss and interact by taking part in friendly matches based on Football3, with mixed teams of girls and boys, locally and regionally. The aim is to give children from diverse vulnerabilities – migrants, children living in poverty, girls – the chance to interact.

 

Other football clubs’ matches

Initiate and train football clubs in the region on Football3 methodology to multiply the impact of this programme and raise awareness of the values that children can acquire from football.

 

SKILL DEVELOPMENT

The youth club will be based in the ActionAid Epikentro community centre in the deprived neighbourhood of Kolonos. Children will have the chance to attend the following courses:

Computer classes/digital literacy: A lack of computer skills one aspect of illiteracy. By teaching children how to navigate the internet and use basic computer programs, we help them break down barriers and open doors to new opportunities.

English lessons: English is essential in the global communities. It helps children improve school performance and integrate better into society.

Job orientation: The goal is to help children discover their skills and abilities, set a life plan and goals for themselves.

Psychological support: Children learn to deal with stress and regain self‐respect and self‐ confidence. This is a crucial part of the empowerment process that enables children to engage and commit to all other courses and to football training.

Empowerment/recreational activities: Children are given the opportunity to interact and have fun. Taking part in small festivals, celebrations and entertaining activities is important to engage young people in the community centre.

Video of the project.

Expected results

Direct beneficiaries

Football team: 20 young people between 12–18 years old (mixed gender) who are members of the football team

Youth club: 60 young people (mixed gender, social status, national/ethnic origin) actively engaged in youth club activities and in the long term.

Indirect beneficiaries:

80 beneficiaries of other organisations directly engaged in matches (diverse gender, ages, social status, ethnic origin)

40 beneficiaries of national level organisations directly engaged in matches.

Partner