Hello, I read your project. I like what coaches are doing, but... How will people emulate and reproduce their learnings gained through your program? I have no doubt your project has good intentions. But the critical point is how will it go on beyond your own good will.
I feel that this is a weak point of all projects, which tend to go OK as long as there's someone extending money for things to happen.
I think that part of the success for any kind of project, social or business oriented, for profit or non-profit, is to achieve success through individual and group life learning experiences, that somehow copy the grass-roots of a project and redefine it according to their own lenses. Meanwhile, it seams more motivated by pitty and patternalism, than responsibility and social awareness.
In our project, we have similar challenges. What worked for us is to really dive into understanding local realities, and designing solutions based on a holistic view of "problems", and actually defining problems as an integral part of solutions. Football doesn't occur outside a context.I invite you to look at our project, that's starting in Cuevas, Samaipata, in Santa Cruz, Bolivia.
For us, it's crucial to consider economic and cultural sustainability of any endeavour. If possible, gradually replace NGO funding, with two-way services with profit-oriented organizations.
We are generating possibilities, step by step, for football to be a core engine to generate economic opportunities. Watch our project http://www.changemakers.com/en-us/node/82754 where we are building a public space to train "rules of trust" while playing football and doing other activities in the same turf. The idea is simple: people value a space that means a lot to them, and a valued place becomes a leverage to generate sustainable wealth.
In Bolivia, football fields are highly valued by local communities, and they take care of them. And they are equivalent to the "marktplatz" or the "marketplace" in European countries. You may clearly see this in places such as Cuevas: where there's no football field, hence there's no places to exchange products or experiences or fun. This creates absurd situations, ie. neighbors buying local produce in a regional market, after it's traveled back and forth more than 250 kms.
We are creating a field for our town, because we are farmers and like to play & watch footbal, men and women of all ages included. And what's best, besides playing, families are starting to generate better conditions for generating better conditions for to sell their crops and products.
Hello, and thanks for your comments. I will try to respond to your points, and try not to respond to some negative assumptions regarding ‘goodwill, intent, pity and paternalism’ (I’m sure we’ve both been in the field long enough to assume that, given our countries’ political and social histories we would, by now, be vigilant and visionary enough not to roll out our programmes with the kind of underlying patronizing ethos and misplaced motivations you imply. The recipients of our programme are not passive, needy, nor hopeless sponges who will accept any intervention given to them, they are post-apartheid South Africans who can smell the stench of paternalism a mile off!)
That said, let me deal with some detail. I think your concern about reproducing learning is an important one and indeed this year, our funders have identified ‘systems strengthening’ as a primary objective for all projects. In fact they will not be funding those partners who fail to show that sustainable impact can be maintained even with (impending) reduced funding.
There are two kinds of recipient to our various curricula and tools. The first experiences the topic, completes exercises, engages in discussions and completes homework. Z-cards (mini booklets) with the content are takeaway tools. The coaches revisit every 2 months to review and consolidate insights, knowledge and ultimately behaviour change.
The second type of recipient is one who has gone through our Assistant Coach programme that is essentially a peer education cascading model.
Coaches enlist experienced community workers, take them through a simplified 6 modular training, and critically focus on how to present, connect and deliver information in a style that will achieve maximum retention on the part of their recipients. Assistant Coaches are affiliated to F4L, given tools and branded merchandise (t-shirts/caps) and maintain their connectedness to the program using social networking technology Facebook.
Prior to rolling out a geographically based Assistant Coach intervention, we conduct a base line questionnaire that investigates current understanding of the topic areas covered in the trainings in the community in which the Assistant coaches will work. 6 weeks later we return and individuals are given the same questionnaire. We then analyse impacts made or not, and depending on the results we then tweak the Coach’s training to emphasise or re-work topics that seem to be more difficult to grasp.
So whilst the 1st type of recipient is encouraged to share their experiences with others they are not tasked with reproducing their learnings per se. The Assistant Coaches however, are all about transmitting the learnings and have ongoing contact with F4L (Assistant Coaches are not paid).
Like you, we do not profess to understand all the nuances of local realities and pride ourselves on our model’s ability to adapt and respond to a wide range of contexts. We gain information and respond according to that community’s needs. Also the fact that our Assistant Coach programme recruits community workers means topics and approaches remain relevant.
Like you, we aspire to a holistic approach to our programme. Our core business is HIV prevention, but every topic we cover relates and is interrelated to form meaningful Wellness.
We agree that it is crucial to consider economic sustainability and are currently converting ourselves into a non-profit section 21 company so that we can become more self sustaining and less donor dependant. This will also mean that we can be more responsive to a community’s needs by developing new indicators and not solely as dictated by the funder.
I note your coments about the value of football fields, and that sounds like a useful platform from which to roll out your interventions. Just to clarify, our programme doesn’t use football ‘the game’ but more uses the cache, and interpersonal connectedness of using retired footballers as the behaviour change catalysts and change makers (we can and do hold 5-a-side tournaments and football-based exercises during brand building events, but this is not our core methodology).
Once again thanks for your interest and we will look at your project that’s starting in Cuevas. Let’s hope the positive echoes of the World Cup assist our programmes.
Thulani Grenville-Grey
Chief Trainer and Programe Developer
Dear Thulani,
thanks for depicting more features of your programme. I've been wanting active football teams to visit Cuevas. Didn't thought about the value of ex-players. Now that I've furthered my understanding of your core engine in your project I see it's value.
I wonder if there are local people that were really good football players too, and what life outcome did they have. As far as Cuevas, people in their 40s continue playing football. Older local men (40s, 50s), all of them, played football before, and some still do. Are there Senior Championships in South Africa too?
I haven't really thought about what's going on with the local elders.
Since your project is more experienced in retired football players, have you seen any relevant impact on your goals, regarding what the local elders say and do? Local elders, in my case in Cuevas, hold "invisible keys" that may or may not open doors regarding support to activities or common goals.
Comments
Hello, I read your project. I like what coaches are doing, but... How will people emulate and reproduce their learnings gained through your program? I have no doubt your project has good intentions. But the critical point is how will it go on beyond your own good will.
I feel that this is a weak point of all projects, which tend to go OK as long as there's someone extending money for things to happen.
I think that part of the success for any kind of project, social or business oriented, for profit or non-profit, is to achieve success through individual and group life learning experiences, that somehow copy the grass-roots of a project and redefine it according to their own lenses. Meanwhile, it seams more motivated by pitty and patternalism, than responsibility and social awareness.
In our project, we have similar challenges. What worked for us is to really dive into understanding local realities, and designing solutions based on a holistic view of "problems", and actually defining problems as an integral part of solutions. Football doesn't occur outside a context.I invite you to look at our project, that's starting in Cuevas, Samaipata, in Santa Cruz, Bolivia.
For us, it's crucial to consider economic and cultural sustainability of any endeavour. If possible, gradually replace NGO funding, with two-way services with profit-oriented organizations.
We are generating possibilities, step by step, for football to be a core engine to generate economic opportunities. Watch our project http://www.changemakers.com/en-us/node/82754 where we are building a public space to train "rules of trust" while playing football and doing other activities in the same turf. The idea is simple: people value a space that means a lot to them, and a valued place becomes a leverage to generate sustainable wealth.
In Bolivia, football fields are highly valued by local communities, and they take care of them. And they are equivalent to the "marktplatz" or the "marketplace" in European countries. You may clearly see this in places such as Cuevas: where there's no football field, hence there's no places to exchange products or experiences or fun. This creates absurd situations, ie. neighbors buying local produce in a regional market, after it's traveled back and forth more than 250 kms.
We are creating a field for our town, because we are farmers and like to play & watch footbal, men and women of all ages included. And what's best, besides playing, families are starting to generate better conditions for generating better conditions for to sell their crops and products.
Hello, and thanks for your comments. I will try to respond to your points, and try not to respond to some negative assumptions regarding ‘goodwill, intent, pity and paternalism’ (I’m sure we’ve both been in the field long enough to assume that, given our countries’ political and social histories we would, by now, be vigilant and visionary enough not to roll out our programmes with the kind of underlying patronizing ethos and misplaced motivations you imply. The recipients of our programme are not passive, needy, nor hopeless sponges who will accept any intervention given to them, they are post-apartheid South Africans who can smell the stench of paternalism a mile off!)
That said, let me deal with some detail. I think your concern about reproducing learning is an important one and indeed this year, our funders have identified ‘systems strengthening’ as a primary objective for all projects. In fact they will not be funding those partners who fail to show that sustainable impact can be maintained even with (impending) reduced funding.
There are two kinds of recipient to our various curricula and tools. The first experiences the topic, completes exercises, engages in discussions and completes homework. Z-cards (mini booklets) with the content are takeaway tools. The coaches revisit every 2 months to review and consolidate insights, knowledge and ultimately behaviour change.
The second type of recipient is one who has gone through our Assistant Coach programme that is essentially a peer education cascading model.
Coaches enlist experienced community workers, take them through a simplified 6 modular training, and critically focus on how to present, connect and deliver information in a style that will achieve maximum retention on the part of their recipients. Assistant Coaches are affiliated to F4L, given tools and branded merchandise (t-shirts/caps) and maintain their connectedness to the program using social networking technology Facebook.
Prior to rolling out a geographically based Assistant Coach intervention, we conduct a base line questionnaire that investigates current understanding of the topic areas covered in the trainings in the community in which the Assistant coaches will work. 6 weeks later we return and individuals are given the same questionnaire. We then analyse impacts made or not, and depending on the results we then tweak the Coach’s training to emphasise or re-work topics that seem to be more difficult to grasp.
So whilst the 1st type of recipient is encouraged to share their experiences with others they are not tasked with reproducing their learnings per se. The Assistant Coaches however, are all about transmitting the learnings and have ongoing contact with F4L (Assistant Coaches are not paid).
Like you, we do not profess to understand all the nuances of local realities and pride ourselves on our model’s ability to adapt and respond to a wide range of contexts. We gain information and respond according to that community’s needs. Also the fact that our Assistant Coach programme recruits community workers means topics and approaches remain relevant.
Like you, we aspire to a holistic approach to our programme. Our core business is HIV prevention, but every topic we cover relates and is interrelated to form meaningful Wellness.
We agree that it is crucial to consider economic sustainability and are currently converting ourselves into a non-profit section 21 company so that we can become more self sustaining and less donor dependant. This will also mean that we can be more responsive to a community’s needs by developing new indicators and not solely as dictated by the funder.
I note your coments about the value of football fields, and that sounds like a useful platform from which to roll out your interventions. Just to clarify, our programme doesn’t use football ‘the game’ but more uses the cache, and interpersonal connectedness of using retired footballers as the behaviour change catalysts and change makers (we can and do hold 5-a-side tournaments and football-based exercises during brand building events, but this is not our core methodology).
Once again thanks for your interest and we will look at your project that’s starting in Cuevas. Let’s hope the positive echoes of the World Cup assist our programmes.
Thulani Grenville-Grey
Chief Trainer and Programe Developer
Dear Thulani,
thanks for depicting more features of your programme. I've been wanting active football teams to visit Cuevas. Didn't thought about the value of ex-players. Now that I've furthered my understanding of your core engine in your project I see it's value.
I wonder if there are local people that were really good football players too, and what life outcome did they have. As far as Cuevas, people in their 40s continue playing football. Older local men (40s, 50s), all of them, played football before, and some still do. Are there Senior Championships in South Africa too?
I haven't really thought about what's going on with the local elders.
Since your project is more experienced in retired football players, have you seen any relevant impact on your goals, regarding what the local elders say and do? Local elders, in my case in Cuevas, hold "invisible keys" that may or may not open doors regarding support to activities or common goals.
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