Coaching for Hope is part of the international volunteering and development organisation Skillshare International, and is supported by The FA. We support local efforts to use football to empower young people in developing countries and engage them with key issues affecting their lives. The Coaching for Hope programme started in West Africa in 2005. We now work in both West Africa and South Africa where we have trained over 700 coaches and run HIV awareness and football sessions for more than 30,000 young people.

Find out more at www.coachingforhope.org

Young leaders challenge to raise more than £3000

In May last year eleven female young leaders and three FA Women’s and Girl’s Football Development Officers made a once in a lifetime, ten day trip to South Africa to deliver football coaching sessions to local school children. The visit was organised in partnership with the British Council and was designed to promote women’s football, women’s leadership in football and to connect classrooms in the UK and South Africa whilst encouraging the training of female students in both South African and UK schools involved in British Council managed projects. The trip was a life changing experience for all those involved and is one that will have a significant, lasting effect on both the young leaders and the development officers that accompanied them.

As a way of showing their gratitude the young leaders have been tasked with raising £3000 for Coaching for Hope. With the eleven young leaders which made the trip to South Africa coming from four different areas of the county, the North have decided to take on the South in a battle to see who can raise the most money! After many ideas and much discussion, the five young leaders from the North have decided that the most effective idea would be a huge, two day football tournament for both male and female teams of almost all ages at Pocklington Town Football Club on Saturday 7th and Sunday 8th May. With the South planning something similar it’s likely that the young leaders will be raising much more that their target!

Lesotho workshop

From 4th – 11th October Coaching for Hope held a workshop in Lesotho as part of a LENEPWHA (Lesotho Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS) project called Phahamisang Boroa bo Hlole HIV le AIDS, which is funded by the Big Lottery Fund in the UK and is supported by Skillshare International in Lesotho.

Nikki Richardson and Dave Amiet, from Brighton and Hove Albion’s Albion in the Community programme, facilitated the course, guiding the local coaches through the Coaching for Hope ‘Adapt It’ manual. The aim of the course was to provide coaches with the skills and strategies to make their football sessions inclusive for people of all abilities. 

Dave and Nikki in Lesotho

Nikki leading a session during the workshop

The workshop was very effective with all participants stating that their opinions had changed, regarding people with disabilities, as a result of attending the workshop. Participants also said that they would feel comfortable implementing football sessions for people with disabilities.  One participant comments: “I will be free and comfortable working with people with disabilities because I know how to work with them. I am also going to encourage more coaches to adapt this in their coaching sessions.”

Our development worker, Shawn Forde (Sports Development and Life skills co-ordinator), comments: “This workshop has built on a successful year for the Coaching for Hope coaches involved in the LENEPWHA project and there is a lot of enthusiasm going forward into the second year.”  Workshops in the second year will have more emphasis on training of trainers, allowing some local coaches to become certified to roll-out training workshops for other coaches within the Coaching for Hope system.

Coaching for Hope in Southern Africa

We recently formed a new partnership with Stellenbosch University, South Africa, who have launched an education based ‘youth development through football’ programme.  This programme brings 150 boys and girls from local schools in University’s surrounding area on a daily basis with the aim of improving their education standards.

Using UK and South African trainers, we delivered football and inclusion modules, and training to their coaching and volunteer team. This training was extended to other sport for change organisations - SCORE, Bread of Life Langa, Love Life, Sporting Chance, Orien and the Scouts of Mpumalanga all took part.

We have also formed partnerships with Soccer4Hope, Ikamva Labantu, Amandla Edufootball, New World Foundation, Bread of life Langa, and the Doringbaai Multipurpose Resource Centre to bid for European Union/GTZ funding under the Youth Development through Football initiative.  Funding of 50,000 Euros has been made available through Soccer4Hope to deliver training to coaches from the partner organisations.

Four CFH trainers -  Dennis Kerspuy, Ivan Kerspuy, Allan da Silva and Barnett Stevens - have received training in the YDF toolkit and will be deployed to deliver coach training courses in February 2011.  We will manage delivery and evaluation of the coach training to 120 coaches.  The programme is focused on boys and girls from marginalised communities and is using football as a means of delivering informal education and life skills training.

We have also recently received an award of 10,000 Euros from the GTZ Youth Development through Football programme to develop a football for social change network in the Western Cape.

Through the work of development worker, Lucy Mills, our partner organisation SCORE has developed new basic training modules aimed at teaching volunteers with no background in sport the basic rules of football and how to organise and referee football activity.  This new manual was piloted in the Zoar community with a group of men and women volunteers.

CFH coach lands top job!
Many congratulations to Alassane Damiba Bob, a senior CFH coach in Burkina Faso who has been appointed as head coach with local team FC Koupéla. 

Bid for unique Cricket book: A unique opportunity to acquire a very limited edition coffee table book signed by 13 of the recent England Ashes Cricket Team.  'Ground Rules' is a full-colour anthology of the principle world cricket test grounds.  Bids must be over £500, with the profit going directly to CFH.  For more information please contact Jane Carter. 

Coaching for Hope goes to India In December 2010, we launched our first ever Coaching for Hope programme in India, in partnership with Save the Children (supported by DFID) and SOVA (South Orissa Voluntary Action). The seven-day coaching programme was delivered to 18 young coaches from tribal communities who learnt coaching skills alongside communications skills and HIV and AIDS teaching. Jacob Naish coaching tribal boys in Koraput, Orissa “This is very important training for this community because tribal youths are disproportionately affected by the HIV virus. They have learned a lot and it will be very important for them to go back and teach their peers what they have learned.” - Dr. Dinesh Baliga, Skillshare International development worker Towards the end of the course the participants were asked to prepare a Plan of Action and lead sessions on HIV and football, so that they can return to their villages and deliver the programme to their football teams. By taking the programme to their rural villages and football teams, the course participants are enabling important information about HIV and AIDS to be shared amongst the very isolated Koraput district of Orissa in East India.

Inclusion tournament in Mali

Working with mining communities in Burkina Faso

On 9th January  2011, two Coaching for Hope coaches visited four different schools in two different mining sites (Essakane and Gorol-Kadje) in the northern part of Burkina Faso.  The objectives of the three day mission were to interview several children and youth about their interest in a football and education related project, and to find out how Coaching for Hope could help them improve their lives.  More than 200 young people from small and isolated mining villages participated in fun focus groups and football sessions.  We are currently exploring funding possibilities to help support a programme in the region later this year.

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Everton FC

The Tottenham Hotspur Foundation

Football for Hope

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