Access to Sport Archives - Page 21 of 23

Game Changers

Location and general information

Context

Young adults (16–24 year-olds) in London are better educated on leaving school than ever before. The proportion of 19 year-olds with qualifications has improved significantly in inner-city London, overtaking the English national average. Nevertheless, they are more likely to be unemployed and, even when in work, young adults are very likely to be low paid. Nearly 11% of 16–24 year-olds in London were unemployed in 2014, more than twice the level for 25–64 year-olds, while 77% of 16–20 year-olds and 41% of 21–24 year-olds are low paid. (Source: London’s Poverty Profile website)

At the same time, there are more than 1,450 football clubs with over 3,300 teams across the city. (Source: London Football Association website)

Kick It Out is primarily a campaigning organisation that enables, facilitates and works with the football authorities, professional clubs, players, fans and communities to tackle all forms of discrimination in football. It offers a wide range of educational activities to help pupils and college or university students understand about equality and inclusion within football and across society.

This project targets young adults who are looking for professional opportunities in the football industry. Sustainability is key to its success in providing a new pathway into football leadership and governance for communities that are under-represented in the game.

Project content

Training and development days

At the core of the programme will be eight full-day training sessions on the themes of empowerment, leadership, football governance, project planning, business, coaching, commercial/public affairs and law.

Kick It Out, in partnership with the Premier League, will source expert trainers from the football business, teaching staff from the University Campus of Football Business (UCFB) – a higher education institution offering undergraduate and postgraduate degrees along with executive education in the football business, sport and events industries – and BPP University Business School, and experienced educators from outside the sector.

The programme will start with four full-day training sessions on the core learning themes of empowerment (Premier League trainers), leadership (Premier League trainers), football governance (FA trainers), and project planning (Mitre Group trainers). Participants will be expected to attend at least three of the four sessions and will be tested in these areas at the start and end of the project in order to measure how much they have learned.

In between these sessions, the participants will be given additional reading tasks, group discussion questions and other assignments based on the themes covered.

Raise Your Game (RYG) events

Participants will receive priority access to Raise Your Game career events throughout the year.

Raise Your Game is a unique Kick It Out programme that provides opportunities for people who aspire to work in the football industry, and is currently supported by the Premier League. Since its inception in 2012, the programme has helped numerous individuals find career pathways in roles such as coaching, media and communications, player engagement, physiotherapy, refereeing and sports science.

Equality and diversity in football awareness course

Kick It Out is working with Southampton Solent University to offer this unique course aimed at educating future leaders of football and increasing awareness of Kick It Out’s work in all sectors of the game. This course is designed for people who will lead the football industry to greater equality and inclusion.

Mentoring

Mentors will be sourced at the beginning of the project and introduced to participants after their induction. They will deliver a minimum of three coaching sessions to facilitate development at each stage of the programme. They will also support the participants at the end of the project by guiding them as they develop their action plans for the following six months.

The project will also include a scheme in which current members of the Game Changers programme will be able to pass on what they have learned. This peer-to-peer learning can be invaluable as it enables young people to learn directly from recent programme .

Objectives

Providing a new pathway into football leadership and governance for communities underrepresented in the game.
Create a tailor-made learning curriculum to promote the values of Kick It Out, such as the benefits of equality, inclusion, diversity policies and practices in football.
Create pathway opportunities for young adults with a good education and looking for job opportunities in the sports industry.
Develop broader awareness and acceptance of Kick It Out’s activities and its enabling and facilitating roles as a contributory force for good in football.

Project Activities

Pathways can be defined as opportunities available to leaders wishing to progress to senior positions, including .

During the project, Kick It Out will work to identify pathways for participants. Mentors will help each participant to access one of the following opportunities within six months of the project ending:

Boards pathway
County FA youth councils
Grassroots club youth councils
Professional club youth councils
Internships or work experience within the football industry
Leadership roles at grassroots or community level
Community leadership programmes run by professional football clubs, Premier League Communities and EFL Trust

Expected results

Key football stakeholders will be encouraged to address the issue of under-representation of women, disabled people and individuals from BAME and LGBT communities in leadership and governance positions in football.
A new pathway into football leadership and governance will be provided for communities under-represented in the game.
Learning and development opportunities will be offered to young leaders from communities under-represented in the game.

Partner

Cruyff Courts in the Dutch Caribbean

Location and general information

Context

Many people live in poverty on the islands of Aruba, Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saint Martin. The recent damage caused by Hurricane Irma, aggravated the local economy and the quality of life.

The project’s target groups live in residential areas just above the poverty line: work does not provide a living income. The quality of education has improved in recent years, but still not to a level that allows adults to live independent lives. Poverty in the Caribbean gives rise to health problems, including obesity, and sometimes leads to child abuse. For many children it is impossible to obtain a proper education, join a sports club and practise safely. This has serious consequences for the children’s health and personal development.

The Cruyff Foundation has been running its Cruyff Courts project since 2005 on Aruba and Bonaire, and 2006 on Sint Eustatius and Saint Martin. The project provides a safe place where children can play, socialise, make friends, and develop their own talent. These are valuable experiences that they carry with them as they develop physically and mentally, and as they move into adult society.

The project was set up in cooperation with the Dutch ministry of health, welfare and sports and is run in cooperation with local sports organisations.

Cruyff Courts have provided thousands of children with a safe public place to play football or other sports in the heart of their community. Cruyff Courts have been used extensively by children and teenagers in this region over the past decade, but schools, sports clubs and other residents have also benefitted from the project. We ran capacity training programmes for coaches in Bonaire, Aruba and Sint Eustatius in 2011.

Project content

Many children live in poverty and have no opportunity to practise sport or take part in activities that help them develop emotionally and socially. Sport is a universal language, regardless of a child’s background, culture, religion or ability. Through sport and play, children become fitter, learn to interact, and develop mentally and physically. We therefore encourage them to take part in the activities at the Cruyff Courts.

A Cruyff Court is a modern interpretation of the traditional playing field that used to be found in many districts and communities before urbanisation. It is the place where children learn respect, health, integration, development and inclusion. Every week thousands of children are active on Cruyff Courts around the world, where they find a safe place to practise sport outdoors.

The pitches on these four Caribbean islands have suffered a lot after 11–12 years of heavy use and need to be refurbished to remain safe places. In the meantime, Hurricane Irma destroyed the Cruyff Court on Saint Martin and damaged the one on Sint Eustatius. So, these two pitches will be replaced with the Cruyff Court Field in a Box concept instead of being refurbished. This is the same principle as the UEFA Field in a Box project, i.e. a specially designed, enclosed artificial pitch, as recently launched by the UEFA Foundation for Children in Madrid and Poland. These pitches are a sustainable, durable and efficient solution.

To ensure the sustainability of this project, a new programme, Heroes of the Cruyff Courts, has been launched. The goal is to turn young people into role models for their neighbourhood and have them involved with the community and the Cruyff Court in the longer term. Events are organised to give young people the opportunity to discover and develop their talents while also being challenged to try something new. The project trains Cruyff Foundation coaches who then oversee youngsters while they organise a sports event for children in the community.

Planning:

Summer 2018: Local coaches start training to become Cruyff Foundation coaches
Summer 2018: Refurbishment of Cruyff Courts on Aruba and Bonaire
Summer 2018/autumn 2018: Cruyff Court Field in a Box installed on Sint Eustatius and Saint Martin
Late 2018/early 2019: Inauguration of the new Cruyff Courts with the active participation of young people through the Heroes of the Cruff Courts programme
2018–2028: Projects and activities run by locals (10-year contract) and continually monitored and evaluated by the Johan Cruyff Foundation

Objectives

Cruyff Courts will provide at least six hours of sports activities a week for local children
Recruit new youngsters to take part in the Heroes of Cruyff Courts programme: learning to coach and organise sports activities and events, while also learning some basic business skills. Everyone who successfully completes the programme becomes a certified coach.
250–500 children attending, playing and enjoying sports activities on the different Cruyff Courts
1 Cruyff Foundation Coaching Course
4 Cruyff Courts inauguration events
4 events organised by 30 heroes/young people in 2019
15 new certified coaches

Expected results

We aim to inspire more children to practise sport and play at Cruyff Courts every day.
We expect to encourage more schools and local organisations to be active in sport.
We believe that once children discover the joy of sport, they will continue to be active for the rest of their lives:

Regular physical activities from a young age provides a long-term advantage in motor-skill development
Sport and play have a positif impact on concentration and improve academic performance at school
Children who engage in regular physical activity have a much lower incidence of psychosocial and behavioural problems

About the Cruyff Foundation

The Johan Cruyff Foundation is an international non-profit organisation that aims to improve the intellectual/mental/emotional and physical well-being of children and teenagers by:

Standing up for the interests of children and young people who have fewer opportunities in life
Offering and encouraging sport and exercise activities by facilitating Schoolyard14 and (special) Cruyff Courts
Financially supporting other projects and organisations with the same objective
Encouraging sport in conjunction with education and healthcare
Stimulating cooperation between various similar organisations in the Netherlands and abroad
Stimulating integration between the various sectors of the population
In addition to Cruyff Courts and Schoolyard14 special attention is paid to disabled children

The Cruyff Foundation works with sport assocations and clubs, the foundations run other leading athletes, local, provincial and national governments, schools, institutions, rehabilitation centres and professional football organisations.

Partners

A ball for all children, a goal for inclusion

Location and general information

Context

Visual impairment often raises questions or creates fear, especially fear of people who are different. Unfortunately, partially sighted or blind people are stigmatised and often seen or defined primarily as disabled rather than perceived as fully-fledged human beings. This attitude emphasises their exclusion and hinders their integration and inclusion in society, including that of the younger generations. Visually impaired children are often the target of taunts and thoughtless comments in schools. In Greece, schools’ lack of understanding or awareness is a barrier for inclusion.

Project content

Orama Neon Youthorama is a non-governmental organisation that has been operational since 2003. Following its international ‘Everybody Wins’ campaign, which promoted the Olympic and Paralympic values by using specially adapted footballs for the visually impaired, the organisation is now planning to launch the ‘A ball for all children, a goal for inclusion’ project. The project aims to inform and support schools, NGOs and the public sector organisations in order to create an inclusive society in terms of knowledge, skills and attitudes. To this end, adapted balls that contain bells and feature the UEFA Foundation for Children logo will be distributed to the participants. These balls will play a key role in the project, in which the participants will play blind football, a sport that is truly inclusive. Every team must contain a mix of sighted and blind players, who must all demonstrate mutual understanding, trust and support as they work together as a team. Blind football also helps to promote a strong message of integration and social cohesion. By raising awareness, the project aims to change how visually impaired people are perceived. They should not be defined by their disability, but treated as fully-fledged players and people.

Objectives

To create a more inclusive society at local and international levels
To promote healthy lifestyles by improving access to sport for everyone

Expected results

To impact 1,000 schoolchildren through awareness workshops in 15 schools
To provide 500 balls to the project participants
To support visually impaired child refugees in refugee camps by giving them specially adapted footballs
To work in schools with a high number of blind and visually impaired children
To produce a promotional video in order to raise awareness of inclusion activities

Partners

Football With No Limits

Location and general information

Context

Cañada Real – a 16km long, 75m wide shanty town on the outskirts of Madrid – is one of the poorest areas in Spain. It is also the largest shanty town in Europe and is commonly referred to as the ‘slum of shame’. It is home to 30,000 people living in insanitary conditions, including large numbers of Moroccan and Roma families. This illegal settlement is also home to numerous drug dealers, who supply the local population. The general insecurity of life in Cañada Real is compounded by the negative impact on children’s education, with academic failure and drop-out rates 40% higher than the national average.

Project content

Against the background of the sometimes strained relations between the various communities that live together in Cañada Real, this programme organised by Red Deporte y Cooperación uses the power of football and the football3 methodology to foster dialogue with a view to resolving conflict. The programme also involves a concerted effort to get more girls playing football. By establishing mixed teams comprising players from various different communities, the organisers seek to remove the barriers and prejudices that divide the people living in Cañada Real. Moreover, in order to maximise the impact on the lives of the programme’s beneficiaries, Red Deporte y Cooperación also supplements its recreational sporting activities with educational workshops aimed at helping children to return to school or find work.

Objectives

Foster harmonious relations between the various communities living together in Cañada Real
Get more girls playing football
Boost beneficiaries’ self-confidence
Encourage children to obtain an education and/or provide them with the tools they need in order to find work.

Expected results

Organisation of 150 training sessions
Hosting of three football festivals for 1,500 children from Cañada Real
Organisation of 30 educational workshops on the subject of education, health and employability
Fostering of communication and cultural exchange through the organisation of tournaments in Cañada Real and elsewhere in Spain
Training of ten coaches, ten referees and three coordinators so they can run the Cañada CF football club

Partners

Allez les Filles!

Location and general information

Context

Mantes-la-Jolie is one of the four areas of the Yvelines department selected as part of the national urban regeneration programme. It is the third largest town in Yvelines and has a relatively young population. Average household income is €15,196 per year, although there are wide variations between districts. The rate of unemployment is more than twice the national average and is especially high among young people, in particular women, in the 15 to 24 age bracket. The town has one of the highest school dropout rates in Ile-de-France and a large proportion of current 15- to 24-year olds left school without any academic qualifications.

The Paris Saint-Germain Foundation is planning to work mainly in the Val Fourré district, an urban area in particular need of regeneration, by stepping up its efforts to develop women’s sport. In 2012 , for example, the Allez les Filles programme was created for girls who had no opportunities to play sport on account of their social or family background.

Project content

Designed specifically for girls aged between 8 and 12, Allez les Filles is a tailor-made, long-term programme comprising 15 sports and cultural education sessions and a holiday week.

Each Allez les Filles group is composed of 25 girls who are given the chance to learn and try out various sports, including football, handball, basketball, dance, combat sports, blind football and high-rope climbing, as well as cultural activities such as street art or museum visits.

Members of the Paris Saint-Germain women’s team, who are closely involved in the programme, act as mentors to the girls. During the season, the girls have the opportunity to talk to them and to attend training sessions and matches.

Objectives

The programme’s objectives are to:

encourage girls in the most deprived areas of Ile-de-France to play sport;
show them the wide range of sports that they could play;
help them to become more self-confident and share values linked to sport, such as team spirit, taking responsibility, respect for rules and other people, and hard work;
foster their social integration through sport.

At the end of the year, the girls are encouraged to continue with one activity. The hope is that they will choose a sport and join a club, with the Foundation covering the cost of their registration fee.

Expected results

With France set to host the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup in 2018 and the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2019, the foundation is keen to expand the Allez les Filles programme by enabling more girls to take part.

Thanks to the support of the UEFA Foundation for Children, an additional 25 girls from the socially deprived French town of Mantes-la-Jolie in Yvelines will be able to participate in the programme.

Partner

Tackling youth unemployment

Location and general information

CONTEXT

In March 2017, 3.883 million young people aged under 25 were unemployed in the 28 EU member states. The situation is especially worrying in France, where almost one in four young people were unemployed (Eurostats, May 2017). Although the situation is less alarming in the United Kingdom, which has one of the lowest unemployment rates in Europe, job insecurity in particular means that even young people who are employed find themselves in a precarious situation.

A lack of support for young job-seekers, inadequate qualifications and economic recession are all factors that prevent young people finding work.

PROJECT CONTENT

This two-year pilot project organised by the UEFA Foundation for Children, car manufacturer Nissan (Nissan Europe) and the streetfootballworld global network is designed to support Sport dans la Ville (France) and Street League (United Kingdom), two organisations that share the common goal of using the power of sport to help young people find employment. Hard work, discipline and respect for the rules are all values that sport can teach young people. Alongside sports activities, the project organises workshops that enable young people to develop their employability skills. As well as increasing their self-confidence and helping them to acquire key skills, the project gives young people the chance to participate in work placements and work-study programmes, to find employment with a well-known company and to take part in activities run by the Nissan Skills Foundation (which focuses on youth skills development).

OBJECTIVES

To reduce youth unemployment in France and the United Kingdom
To promote the social and professional integration of young people from disadvantaged areas by giving them access to training, employment and sports activities
To promote the benefits and values of sport as an instrument of social change

EXPECTED RESULTS

Lower school drop-out rate, higher employment and better training among young people aged between 15 and 24 in France and the United Kingdom.

PARTNERS

Extra Time – Tackling the ‘Dead Zone’

Location and general information

Context

Jocotenango is an area of Guatemala that suffers from grinding poverty, gang crime, drug/alcohol abuse and domestic/sexual violence. Education for the Children (EFTC) runs a School of Hope in the area which is attended by more than 650 children. It also operates a successful four-point integrated plan helping people to escape poverty, which combines education, nutrition, health care and social support.

EFTC’s Extra Time project aims to tackle the issue of the ‘dead zone’ – the period between school ending and parents returning from work (which is often late in the evening). EFTC plans to use sport as a solution to this problem, seeking to combat the lifelong implications of children falling into gang crime, substance abuse and anti-social behaviour at a young age. In view of the fact that Guatemala has a three-month rainy season, EFTC will build an all-weather pitch with a roof and a drainage system to allow children to use the site all year round. This new facility will also be used for various community projects, such as workshops for children and parents, medical check‑ups and an empowerment project for local girls. For the School of Hope, sport is much more than just a game – it is a game changer.

Project content

Sport as a solution to the ‘dead zone’

The Extra Time project will use access to sport as a solution to the problem of the ‘dead zone’. The organisation of after-school sports clubs and community workshops will provide significant opportunities for personal development and the protection of children’s rights.

Access to life skills through sport

Football clubs – and sports clubs in general – will not only serve as an alternative activity; they will also play a pivotal role in children’s development.

Bridging gaps

The Extra Time project will also organise tournaments with a view to bridging gaps between local communities.

A school of football fans

At present, the School of Hope is full of football fans with no real way of enjoying the game. EFTC aims to harness their passion for football and use it to tackle the issue of the ‘dead zone’, helping them to achieve long-term success by escaping poverty.

Objectives

To tackle the ‘dead zone’ and give children living in poverty an alternative to hanging around on the streets after school
To offer positive alternative activities, steering children away from crime, alcohol/drug abuse and unprotected/underage sex
To increase participation in sport among children with no current access to facilities, coaching or equipment
To empower girls through sport, self-defence classes and workshops
To provide the local community with a safe venue for workshops
To bridge gaps between communities through inter-school football tournaments

Expected results

- 3,000 local people with access to sport and community workshops that are not currently available to them
- Safer, healthier and more academically engaged children
- Children with less time and inclination to engage in gang crime, alcohol/drug abuse or unprotected sex after school
- Children who are well educated on the subjects of sex, sexually transmitted diseases and sexual abuse
- A reduction in the number of children at the School of Hope who are involved in gang crime
- Better future prospects for children as a result of essential life skills taught through sporting activities
- A reduction in the number of cases of substance abuse at the School of Hope
- A reduction in the number of teenage pregnancies at the School of Hope (expected to fall from ten to five by the end of the first year)
- More confident girls who are actively engaged in higher education and making positive choices regarding their future
- Greater engagement in the local community through community workshops
- Better networking with schools in surrounding communities through tournament events
Partners

Field in a box – Mragowo

Location and general information

CONTEXT

Following the successful installation of the first Field in a Box football pitch in Cañada Real, the UEFA Foundation for Children decided to continue its work with FedEx, which financed the construction of a second pitch in the small town of Mragowo in northeast Poland. The global not-for-profit network streetfootballworld helped to identify the location for the pitch and select local charity Mazurskie Stowarzyszenie Inicjatyw Sportowych (MSIS) to maintain the pitch and ensure its sustainable use and positive impact.

PROJECT CONTENT

The UEFA Foundation for Children has been running the Field in a Box project since 2016, the aim being to provide an enclosed, fully functional artificial football pitch to communities in need. The system is environmentally sustainable and quick to install.

OBJECTIVES

By promoting this project, the UEFA Foundation for Children aims to improve the lives of young people and breathe new life into disadvantaged communities. By providing opportunities to play football, the foundation endeavours to promote children’s health and support their personal development, while instilling in them the values of football, such as respect and team spirit.

RESULTS TO DATE AND EXPECTED RESULTS

Organising football training using the football3 method
Maintaining and ensuring sustainable use of the pitch through the recruitment of an activities coordinator by local charity Mazurskie Stowarzyszenie Inicjatyw Sportowych (MSIS)
Facilitating the integration and social cohesion of different people living in Mragowo

PARTNERS

La League: Champions of Change

Location and general information

Context

Girls and young women in developing countries often face two severe obstacles when growing up: child marriage and teenage pregnancy. Although it is often perceived to be a girl’s destiny, becoming a wife and a mother at such a young age has major consequences. In Latin America, where machismo prevails, girls believe that early marriage and pregnancy are the only way to escape poverty and violence at home. However, this often turns out to be a continuation of an already negative cycle of events, as marriage and motherhood tend to limit girls’ development even more.

Teenage pregnancy and child marriage pose serious health risks, with unsafe abortions and complications relating to pregnancy and childbirth being some of the leading causes of death among girls aged 15 to 19. This not only affects the individual in question; it trickles straight down to the next generation, with families, communities and even entire nations remaining trapped in a cycle of poverty and gender inequality. Teenage pregnancies are more likely in poor, uneducated and rural communities – exactly the kinds of community that Plan works in.

La League project aims to empower adolescent girls and their male peers in Nicaragua with a view to preventing teenage pregnancies and delaying marriage. One of the methods used consists of involving fathers and boys in efforts to achieve equal rights and freedoms for girls. This makes football the ideal vehicle for this project, as a male-dominated arena is exactly what is needed. Football can have a powerful impact in terms of changing gender roles and raising awareness regarding the negative impact of teenage pregnancies and child marriages.

Project content

Plan has, in cooperation with the Johan Cruyff Foundation and Women Win, established an effective model empowering adolescent girls and young women between the ages of 12 and 20 to decide for themselves whether, when and whom to marry, and whether, when and with whom to have children. At the heart of this project lies football, with the organisers encouraging girls to play the game and turn talented players into professional football heroes, and at the same time encouraging fathers and male role models to support their girls – not only when it comes to football, but also in other more important life choices. Thus, football is used to transform gender norms and raise awareness regarding sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR).

With the support of the UEFA Foundation for Children, this project will now be rolled out in Nicaragua, which has the highest teen pregnancy rate in Latin America.

Girls’ football lies at the very heart of Plan’s methodology. Football is used to empower girls and make them more visible to fathers and boys, who then get involved in efforts to achieve equal rights and freedoms for girls, helping to prevent teenage pregnancies and child marriages. This method consists of three different pathways:

- Social empowerment of girls through football

The goal is to motivate girls to play football and experience teamwork, helping them to increase their self-confidence and boosting their knowledge of sexual and reproductive rights.

- Involvement of fathers and other male role models

In order to transform gender norms and raise awareness, boys and fathers will be encouraged to support their girls – not only when it comes to football, but also in other more important life choices.

- Economic empowerment of girls through the creation of job opportunities in football

This project seeks to create jobs and other income-producing opportunities in the world of football or related domains, so that girls can, for example, become coaches or gain access to scholarships in order to pursue playing careers.

Plan of action:

Conduct a baseline study looking at the incidence of teenage pregnancy and child marriage.
Develop didactic material and train trainers.
Engage with local government in order to turn municipal sports courts into safe spaces for girls.
Conduct two media training sessions for 20 youth reporters.
Help girls and boys (of the same age) to organise events raising awareness of the harmful effects of child marriage and teenage pregnancy.
Involve 150 fathers, brothers and other male figures in girls’ football activities.
Teach 40 girls leadership and entrepreneurial skills.
Produce a video documentary on the impact of girls’ football in Nicaragua.

Expected results

Awareness regarding the negative effects of teenage pregnancy and child marriage will increase significantly. Girls and boys will both learn about how they can prevent early pregnancy and marriage.

300 girls will attend Champions of Change football training.
20 girls’ football teams will be established in 10 different communities.
150 boys will be trained as Champions of Change.
10 girls and 10 boys will become youth reporters and cover the La League project.
4,500 peers will be in contact with Champions of Change through peer-to-peer events.
150 fathers/male role models will be actively involved in their girls’ football activities, supporting them in their SRHR decisions.
300 members of the community will be committed to improving gender equality in their daily lives.
40 girls will learn leadership/entrepreneurial skills and have access to football-related jobs (such as coaching).
4 talented girls will have access to sports scholarships.

Partners

Field in a Box – Cañada Real

Location and general information

CONTEXT

The UEFA Foundation for Children exists to promote the fundamental rights of children all over the world. Health, education, access to sport and personal development are all areas in which children’s rights can be safeguarded.
By providing infrastructure such as football pitches, the Foundation aims to use football as a powerful tool for social cohesion.

PROJECT CONTENT

The Field in a Box project was launched in Cañada Real. Situated less than 15 minutes from the Spanish capital, Cañada Real is one of the largest shanty towns in Europe, housing a total of 30,000 people in deplorable conditions. Relations between the different communities that live there, especially between Roma and Moroccan immigrants, are often difficult.
Thanks to financial support from FedEx – the world’s largest logistics company and main sponsor of the UEFA Europa League – and coordination by the not-for-profit organisation streetfootballworld, the UEFA Foundation for Children donated a football pitch to the charity Red Deporte y Cooperación. The pitch was built using the Field in a Box system, in which all the components of a football pitch are supplied in two containers. The system provides a safe sports facility comprising an enclosed artificial football pitch, goals, floodlights and changing rooms.

OBJECTIVES

The project’s main objective is to enable young people in Cañada Real, where sports facilities are few and far between, to play sport. By promoting football in Cañada Real, the foundation hopes to curb the exclusion of marginalised communities and foster greater social harmony.

RESULTS

In the space of one year:

Participation of 400 children (90% boys and 10% girls) in football
Organisation of 500 matches
Pitch maintained by youth coaches from the local community

Field in a Box is funded as part of FedEx Cares, a wide-ranging campaign that aims to invest in more than 200 communities in Europe and beyond by 2020. By cooperating with the UEFA Foundation for Children alongside its sponsorship of professional football, FedEx hopes to support initiatives with a positive local impact.

PARTNERS

Brincar de Rua – Street Play

Location and general information

Terminé

Location Portugal

Start date 09/01/2016

End date 12/31/2019

Cost of the project €352,391

Foundation funding €63,749

Project identifier EUR - 0130

Partners Ludotempo, Higher School of Education and Social Sciences of the Polytechnical Institute of Leiria (Escola Superior de Educação e Ciências Sociais do Instituto Politécnico de Leiria), Portuguese Institute for Sports and Youth (Instituto Português do Desporto e Juventude - IPDJ), London Play (UK).

Context

In general, Portuguese children are swamped with organised activities (from school to extra-curricular activities), they have poor access to physical activities, little free time and almost no time for free play – but the thing they wish for most of all is to play freely outside. Portuguese parents would love to see their children play freely outside, however they are overly afraid that their children might get abducted, sexually abused, have an accident on the road or get into a fight with other children. The project aims to provide children with opportunities to naturally develop their motor and social skills and adopt healthier lifestyles, while offering their parents a safe and healthy way to occupy their children.

Brincar de Rua will provide free, active and non-digital play experience in urban areas to children aged 5 to 12. The children will be able to go to the play group in their neighbourhood and take part in activities that promote their health, development and well-being.

Brincar de Rua has developed a high-impact and scalable programme which:

trains monitors, volunteers and mentors who manage groups of children;
involves local partners;
provides a web platform that gathers all the group information (security, training, membership) and puts everyone in contact;
evaluates security issues for each play group and provides specific materials;
schedules a play calendar and manages the monitors present at each play-group session;
registers every child, provides each child with an insurance policy and gives each one a GPS locator to use in the sessions (this is managed through a mobile phone app that allows parents to know the exact location of their children).Children are happy to enjoy their neighbourhood, develop personal and social skills, and get active and healthy.

Ludotempo, the owner of the project, is a non-profit association based in Leiria. Its mission is to promote the right of children to play. Playing is essential to the physical, emotional and intellectual health of children and helps them develop into efficient, well-balanced adults.

The financial support from the UEFA Foundation for Children will assure the training, mentoring programme and part of the material needed for the play groups – all vital aspects for the implementation of the project.

Project content

Brincar de Rua started as a pilot project to test security issues, community activation processes, training strategies, technology issues and communication strategies. The results of this first step were excellent:

the demand to participate in the programme exceeded the number of places available by almost five times;
a lot of volunteers were ready to get involved in the project;
20 local partners were mobilised to help out with tasks such as community activation and project dissemination;
the project received good media coverage and engagement through the organisation’s website and social networks.

The positive perceptions of the project led to the development phase of the programme – preparation of all training content, strategies and methodologies, production of a training manual and establishment of the recruiting process protocol. Promotional campaigns, events, an exhibition and a round table about the importance of play and children in the city will involve local partners such as parents’ associations.

The Brincar de Rua model is a global programme that can be implemented in different places.

Objectives

create around 190 play groups across 11 Portuguese cities,
provide the facilities to involve 2,300 children in free-play activities,
create awareness of the importance of play, targeting 40 schools and more than 300 first to fourth-grade teachers,
lobby the local authorities in order to encourage play-promoting policies and initiatives, including the right for children to use public spaces and to play in total safety;
help to change the mentality of school directors and teachers, promoting the inclusion of free play in the day-by-day routine of Portuguese schools,
help to change the habits of Portuguese families
create new informal play groups outside the Brincar de Rua grid;
train more than 300 volunteers (potential community leaders) and 30 future trainers/ mentors to ensure the natural replication of new play groups,
encourage the involvement of local people in parallel pro-community activities;

Project activities

– Stimulate active and free play for children without the presence of digital games and devices

– Provide the municipalities and the neighbourhoods with an engaging programme that stimulates active and healthy behaviours and encourages community participation

– Lay the foundations for a new training methodology for volunteers based on online training and informal peer to peer training.

Expected results

Direct impact:

increase in the number of free and active play hours for the children;
increase in the number of physical activities per child (sport, outdoor activities, play activities with other children;
reduction in the number of screen hours of children (TV, digital games, etc.) four hours less a week (about 20% reduction);
increase in the number of hours of physicial activities in families – one more hour a week;
reduction in the number of overweight children by 10%;
increase in the number of activities organised by the programme leaders in their neighbourhoods – at least 20% of the play groups should organise or be involved in the organisation of one parallel activity in their community.

Other expected results:

Scientific dissemination of the importance of free play:

22,000 families impacted through activities in schools and 40,000 people through regional media coverage;
2,200 people directly involved in the dissemination activities;
300 teachers, school directors and other education professionals involved in the seminars.

Partner

Beyond the Green Pitch

Location and general information

Context

Founded in 2003, the Instituto Fazer Acontecer, based in Salvador de Bahia, promotes sports activities and training in human rights to young people living in disadvantaged areas. The main idea is to use football to educate through play and fun, providing opportunities for social inclusion and development of personal skills to the young participants in the programme. Football3 methodology is already used in 16 municipalities and reaches young adults in the rural areas where most of the challenges lie. Combining sport with environmental awareness activities works as a tool for effective social change in the target communities and provides education in human rights, establishing a relationship of respect and a feeling of being respected and of belonging in the community.

The Instituto Fazer Acontecer plans to extend its action to reach an additional 15 municipalities with the financial support of the UEFA Foundation for Children.

Project content

The UEFA Foundation for Children will support the Beyond the Green Pitch project, which aims to:

train 300 instructors in football3 methodology and in combining football with environmental awareness activities;
involve 900 young people (boys and girls) aged between 11 and 17 from 15 municipalities in the programme.

Objectives

Create a new sporting and environmental culture in the municipalities taking part in the project;
Raise the self-esteem of the participants (instructors and young people);
Promote environmental awareness in the region;
Specific goals:

1) to train 300 instructors in football3 methodology environmental awareness activities,
2) to promote capacity-building in sport and the environment among the 300 instructors,
3) to involve 900 young people aged between 11 and 17 from the municipalities taking part in the project in weekly activities (sport and environmental awareness),
4) to establish sustainable projects in at least half of the participating municipalities.

EXPECTED IMPACT AND RESULTS
• Reach 1,200 individuals (300 instructors and 900 young people)
• Impact public policies of the 15 municipalities by introducing the football3 methodology in schools
• Impact indirectly 5,000 people (families, institutions and communities)

Partners

Life Skills Curriculum Project

Location and general information

Context

More than 25 years of international and domestic insecurity and violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has left very few prospects for youth development. As a consequence of this long period of instability, the population is facing health issues such as drug and alcohol abuse, malnutrition and communicable disease transmission. In this context, Promo Jeune Basket (PJB), a locally run grassroots organisation based in Goma, focuses on educating youth through basketball. PJB aims to empower youth to overcome their difficult situations by using sport as a tool for health promotion, peace and education by requiring all participants to attend school.

The UEFA Foundation for Children is supporting the Life Skills Curriculum Project. This programme will encourage young people to focus on their future, avoid risk behaviours and engage in the world with a global perspective. The course will include a range of topics, including personal health and hygiene, the importance of education, goal setting, and non-violent communication.

This project will run in tandem with the existing programmes of the organisation: basketball training that uses sport to instil the values of hard work, team spirit, discipline and respect; and the provision of school scholarships for players who exemplify these values on the court and in the community.

Project Content

Life Skills Curriculum Project is a course tailored to the needs and aspirations of the community. These lessons provide young people with a chance to learn about personal health, practice non-violent conflict resolution, increase their ability to work with others and allow a safe, open space for dialogue about the challenges they encounter in their community. These objectives are met through the five components of the course:

Personal development – focus on health, hygiene and self-confidence
Collaboration and cooperation – focus on conflict resolution
Interpersonal communication – focus on processing and expressing emotions, as well as on public speaking
Professional development – focus on goal-setting, time management and leadership development
Problem-solving and critical thinking – focus on dialogue around community issues such as poverty, insecurity, domestic and sexual abuse, and peer pressure

Objectives

Deliver the life skills curriculum to PJB players aged 14 and older. These youngster will develop personally and professionally, learn strategies for facilitating non-violent conflict resolution, collaborate with others and practise critical thinking.
Train 15 young leaders (university and upper secondary students) to teach and deliver life skills lessons on and off the court.
Offer the life skills curriculum to over 1,200 young people in the city of Goma.
Create a media programme to promote the life skills programme and reach a larger number of young people in the city.

Expected impact and results

1. The personal development classes increase young people’s confidence and leadership skills.
2. The communication lessons prepare young people to facilitate non-violent communication and make them fluent in peace strategies.
3. The professional development lessons prepare young people to succeed both academically and professionally.
4. The collaboration and cooperation lessons improve young people’s ability to work in diverse groups.
5. The problem-solving units cultivate critical-thinking skills as well as open dialogue for talking about difficult issues such as poverty and insecurity. The ultimate result of the life skills programme is that young people are helped to become active citizen leaders in their community.

Partners

Football for All in Vietnam

Location and General Information

Context

The Football for All in Vietnam (FFAV) project was initiated in 1997 and formally established in 2001 by means of a partnership between the Football Association of Norway (NFF) and the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF). FFAV uses football activities to teach life skills and promote cultural values to young children and adolescents. FFAV currently supports 1,541 teams at 183 clubs, with more than 17,000 children participating in these activities.

However, with certain children facing specific problems when it comes to integrating into their communities, this programme is set to be expanded in order to cover three specific groups:

Young girls – particularly girls from ethnic minorities – are often expected to conform to gender roles set out by society and their families, as well as facing issues associated with a lack of education and early marriage.
Children with disabilities are often treated as outsiders and seen as unable to fully participate in society because of their differences.
Children living on boats in resettlement areas face a plethora of societal issues as a consequence of being seen as different and inferior by local residents. This results in them being discriminated against, not wanting to go to school and not having many friends.

Objectives

This project will extend the FFAV model to cover these children, specifically allocating resources to these groups in order to help them address the issues they face through participation in football and life skills activities. Alongside funding from UEFA, additional programmes and resources will be deployed in order to meet the following objectives:

fostering social inclusion – especially among parents and children – by giving girls, children with disabilities and children from resettlement areas greater access to football activities;
helping and supporting local partners, enabling them to facilitate grassroots football and life skills activities on the ground;
helping to improve soft skills (including communication, self-confidence and teamwork) and raise social awareness of the target groups through football activities/events incorporating life skills;
promoting volunteerism and the development of leadership skills among young people in the community.

Project Content

Activities will be concentrated in specific areas of Thua Thien Hue Province: A Luoi District and Nam Dong District, resettlement areas and social centres. They will include the following:

Football training for coaches and referees at new clubs, plus life skills courses

Youth leadership programme
Volunteer training for members of local communities, including parents
Three ‘fun football festivals’ with a focus on integrating young girls from ethnic minorities, children from resettlement areas and children with disabilities
Study tour monitoring the needs and results of the project

Expected Results

Grassroots football will be introduced in seven new resettlement areas and maintained in four others. We expect the creation of football clubs to encourage children to stay in school, improving their level of education. Making friends in the community will lead to further social inclusion, while increased self-confidence will result in better communication skills. Children will learn life skills through club activities, which will reduce addiction and early pregnancies.
At least 2,000 disadvantaged children – including ethnic minority girls in two mountainous districts, orphans and children with disabilities in 14 social centres, and children in resettlement areas – will be included in FFAV’s football and life skills project as a matter of priority.
All children participating in the project will be taught about gender equality, social inclusion, children’s rights and other social problems associated with their community.

At least 500 adolescent girls – especially those from ethnic minorities – will be taught about reproductive health, financial management, health and hygiene, and communication.

We expect that participation in football activities at the various new clubs will result in more young girls becoming physically active. We hope to have equal numbers of girls and boys playing, which should help to gradually break down gender norms.

In addition, 13 existing football clubs in social centres and resettlement areas are to receive assistance, being given both operational and financial support.

Allowing children with disabilities to participate in football activities will help to improve social inclusion by fostering interaction with a wide range of different people. We want to increase awareness and understanding of the issues faced by children with disabilities, enable them to play and interact with other children, increase their self-confidence, improve their communication skills and encourage other children to play with them. Overall, this project aims to break down negative prejudices about children with disabilities, using football to show the contribution that they can make to society.

Partners

Sport after reading and play

Location and General Information

Context

According to the United Nations, Benin, Cameroon and Togo are some of the world’s poorest countries, ranked 166th, 153rd and 162nd respectively out of 188 in terms of human development. None of them have an average life expectancy of more than 57 years; children spend an average of less than six years at school (less than four in Benin); less than a third of children go on to secondary or higher education; and both women and girls are marginalised when it comes to sport.

This project forms part of an educational programme outside of school which uses games, sport, books and modern IT in order to provide teaching, pursue preventive and educational goals, and achieve a comprehensive range of development objectives in deprived areas of developing countries, establishing libraries of books and games, sports academies promoting team sports, dedicated IT areas, etc.

Project content

This project uses the power of football – and sport in general – to foster the development of deprived children in all respects and improve their life chances. The funding that the UEFA Foundation for Children provides will allow the project to:

build and equip multi-sport pitches in the heart of deprived areas of the three countries;
purchase sports equipment for handball, basketball, football and volleyball;
train young local sports coaches;
organise a sports academy offering four hours of coaching a week for each sport (i.e. a total of 16 hours a week across the four sports);
organise a promotional tournament;
bring organisers from the three countries together to exchange ideas;
establish monitoring, oversight, support and assessment mechanisms.

Objectives

Foster personal development and self-confidence, preparing children for the future and helping them to escape poverty
Help teachers/instructors to organise high-quality educational initiatives through sport with a view to fostering all aspects of development
Help to improve the physical and mental well-being of young children and adolescents in deprived areas by giving them the opportunity to play four team sports (football, handball, volleyball and basketball) in a high-quality environment
Teach children sporting values such as respect, sharing, solidarity, humility, perseverance, discipline and team spirit
Promote universal access to team sports through regular sessions overseen by trained local coaches from the same social class as the children
Foster exchanges of ideas/experiences and networking among the young sports coaches with a view to effecting lasting change through sport

Expected results

In order to ensure that these sports are played in appropriate conditions, help participants to really develop their sports skills and learn the positive civic values embodied by sport, and encourage children to adopt behavioural patterns that reflect the project’s educational objectives, a maximum of 30 participants will be able to sign up for each of the four sports (handball, volleyball, football and basketball) in each semester – i.e. each country will have a limit of 240 children per year (resulting in a grand total of 720 beneficiaries per year). This should allow the following objectives to be achieved:

Develop new educational activities in these deprived areas
Facilitate team sports through the construction of pitches
Recruit young coaches (men and women) to work with local children
Offer sustainable and structured sporting activities throughout the year
Foster positive values such as respect, sharing, solidarity, discipline and team spirit
Increase participation among girls and stimulate the local community
Tackle inactivity

Partners

Football for Life Champions Academy

Location and General Information

Context

On 8 November 2013, Typhoon Haiyan tore through the Philippines, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. The islands of Leyte and Samar were hit particularly hard, including Leyte’s provincial capital, Tacloban, which suffered widespread devastation and numerous fatalities. After this natural disaster, there was no play, no joy and no opportunity for children just to be children.

Football has since restored childhood to children in Tacloban. The Football for Life (F4L) Champions Academy project uses football to engage with children and adolescents from severely marginalised communities, who are trapped in a cycle of intergenerational poverty. Most often these children and young people do not have access to education – or if they do, they are not particularly successful in their studies, as they lack the necessary life skills and the confidence to succeed. This is exactly the void that the project fills.

Project content

The UEFA Foundation for Children is supporting the Football for Life Champions Academy, which helps severely disadvantaged children to complete their education by helping them into higher education, training or skilled employment. The youngsters are connected with local champions (youth football coaches), who act as mentors, motivating the children to stay in school and thrive there. They encourage and provide positive reinforcement for children who often lack encouragement to continue and succeed in education.

Objectives

To restore childhood where it has ceased to exist by providing football-based play therapy
To help children to pursue their dreams, regardless of their social status and gender
To promote football as a possible career path for the coaches
To promote football among children and young people and identify and nurture football talent
To bring dignity to the local communities and restore their sense of identity

Concrete actions:

Delivering the Champions Academy curriculum through football sessions
Organising the annual Sama Sama Games (the first-ever football tournament to promote equality
Participating in local, regional, national and international football tournaments and events
Developing football coaches further
Developing non-football life skills and giving support with homework

Expected results

Improved academic performance and a bigger commitment from children to their studies: we expect 95% of children to become more focused on their studies and improve their academic performance as a result of being involved in the project.
Meaningful relationships and deep trust between coaches and children: we expect up to 97% of children to confirm that the football coaches are their life role models, which will place further importance on developing the coaches and making them champions for the children.
Improved culture of medium/long-term commitment: we expect 100% of the children’s families to encourage their children to continue the programme, thus further cultivating long-term commitment.
Access to employment: by working with local business partners, the programme will connect the beneficiaries with real-life opportunities. An example of this already exists through an understanding with AirAsia that children and young people who complete the programme can be selected to enter the pilot cadet training centre and ultimately have the opportunity to become an airline pilot.

Figures: forcast for the next 36 months

3,600 football sessions delivered to 2,000 children and adolescents in Tacloban
10,000 children and young people reached indirectly through project activities
2,400 hours of homework support given to the project participants in disciplines such as English, maths and environment
Training of 20 coaches from Tacloban in technical expertise and the delivery of football life skills sessions
At least 100 children exposed to national and international travel for football tournaments, who will later share their stories with peers back in their home communities
Football for Life Champions Academy curriculum completed, ready to be used to replicate the project elsewhere, and potentially be adopted by the national department of education
50 young people enrolled on leadership workshops and matched with real-life job opportunities.