Sports and social transformation via mobile phones
This entry has been selected as a winner in the
Sport for a Better World competition.
Project Street Address
Project City
Project Province/State
Project Postal/Zip Code
Project Country
Sport
Other
Year the initative began (yyyy)
2006
YouTube Upload
Project URL (include HTTP://)
Which of these barriers is the primary focus of your work?
Few effective tools for personal improvement
Which of the principles is the primary focus of your work?
Leverage the fun factor
If you believe some other barrier or principle should be included in the mosaic, please describe it and how it would affect the positioning of your initiative in the mosaic:
For this project Lack of “safe spaces” is also a primary barrier
Name Your Project
Sports and social transformation via mobile phones
Describe Your Idea
What is your signature innovation, your new idea, in one sentence?
To send free information by means of mobile SMS text messages regarding sports, citizenship and jobs, to youths, thus increasing their growth opportunities.
Describe your innovation. What makes your idea unique and different than others doing work in the field?
The 0800 Rede Jovem Project seeks to leverage on youths’ ample access to mobile phones to disseminate information on leisure and growth opportunities in the areas surrounding their communities.
Among such opportunities, there are:
- places to practice sports free of charge (courts, schools, free lessons)
- employment vacancies
- free cultural and artistic events (concerts, exhibits, movies and plays)
- free services related to citizenship (issuing documents, medical checkups)
Opportunity messages are sent daily to 500 enrolled youths, via summarized SMS messages (140 characters). One example message would be: “0800: free lessons in floor gymnastics at Olaria. Enroll at Andre Azevedo Street, s/n – Public School. Phone Nr. 2260-0387 Prof. Ronaldo”.
In addition to text messages, all opportunities are registered in the project’s website (www.redejovem.org.br/0800) and can be searched by date, location or topic.
What are the existing barriers, the biggest problem, your innovation is hoping to address/change?
Access to information separates rich and poor in Brazil. Youths from favelas (slums) rarely learn of opportunities that are available free of charge, close to where they live.
There is a huge amount of events, places to practices sports and services rendered daily by government bodies and NGOs, all free of charge. Many youths are often unaware that there is a basketball court with free basketball lessons just 1km away from their home. Many vacancies are unfilled because these opportunities are not communicated to
Delivery Model: How do you implement your innovation and apply it to the challenge/problem you are addressing?
Rede Jovem has established partnerships with community organizations in five favelas in the states of Rio de Janeiro, Espírito Santo and São Paulo.
Each of these organizations enrolled 100 youths between 16 and 24 years of age, all living in their corresponding communities and in possession of a prepaid mobile phone.
Rede Jovem enrolled the 500 youths in a database through which the messages are sent, in groups divided by topic and location.
A website has been set up with a system for registering and searching for opportunities, filtered by date, topic and location.
Rede Jovem has hired local youths from the communities to research the surrounding opportunities and publish brief announcements on the website. A content team also works in research and in editing announcements.
Announcements are edited into 140-character messages and sent via text messages (SMS) to the enrolled youths.
Each youth receives one message per day, with information on places for practicing sports free of charge, free services and job opportunities available in their communities
How do you plan to grow your innovation?
Starting in 2008, Rede Jovem will seek partnerships with community organizations in other locations and with businesses that can provide funding to include new youths in the database.
For the past year, the Program has also been forming a network of partners in each community, comprised of ngos, businesses, schools, cultural and sports centers that provide free services to be broadcast. When this network is activated, it will lower costs with content production, since the partners will be able to publish opportunities on the website.
A key part of this process is that youths perceive the project’s value and the importance of information, and said they would be willing to contribute with part of the costs with messages. In other words, pay a symbolic fee for the services.
Rede Jovem is also interested in increasing the sports- and citizenship-related content that is currently offered.
Provide one sentence describing your impact/intended impact.
75% increase in youth attendance and participation in sports events and practices.
What impact has your innovation had to date/or what is your intended impact? Exactly who are the beneficiaries?
By receiving daily information on their mobile phones, youths begin to attend events and benefit from the opportunities.
Every two months, Rede Jovem monitors the impact of receiving messages, through research.
23% enrolled in some sports activity announced in SMS messages;
62% have used information sent by the project via SMS;
64% claim to have forwarded opportunities received via SMS to other people. Of these, 29% have forwarded them to over five people;
93% find the opportunities received to be useful
98% of the youths are very satisfied with receiving the messages
99% understand the messages perfectly;
In the next phase, we expect to increase the number of messages regarding sports, and thus reach 75% of youth insertion in sports activities.
How many people have you served directly?
Directly 500
How many people have you served indirectly?
Indirectly 10.000
Approximately 2500 people indirectly have access to the SMS messages’ content.
The website registers an average of 2000 visits per month.
Please list any other measures reflective of the impact of your innovation?
In addition to results directly related to sports, other benefits are counted:
28% of benefited youths have sent a résumé to employment vacancies, based on opportunities received.
Of these, 10% have taken part in interviews for the vacancies announced
3 youths have been hired;
20% have been to a free cultural event announced in the SMS’s received
The website registers an average of 2000 searches for opportunities every month.
What are the main barriers to creating or achieving your impact?
This field has not been completed
This Entry is about (Issues)
How is your initiative financed (or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)?
The project was conceived by Rede Jovem and received financial support from Instituto Oi Futuro (www.oifuturo.org.br) for its implementation and pilot phase. A partnership has also been established with a corporation from the mobile sector, Okto (www.okto.com.br), which enabled technical interface and the cost of sending SMS’s.
This support was achieved by means of a call for nominations that awarded innovative projects (Programa Novos Brasis).
The project is currently concluding the pilot phase and is seeking funding from other businesses and partners to maintain and expand the project.
The monthly cost per youth is being defined in a plan to scale up operations, in order to create a model of individual or group support, along the lines of “adopt a youth”.
If known, provide information on your finances and organization.
• Annual Budget: R$687.405,00
(com menu de escolha permitindo selecionar a denominação e depois convertemos não em US$ para incluir um Segundo número)
Annual Revenue: R$744.575,00
• Staff size: (3 caixas: tempo integral, meio período, voluntários):
Staff Full time Part time Volunteers
Coord. 5 6 3
Projects 0 4 80
What is the potential demand for your innovation?
In addition to the youths already enrolled, we have a database with over 1000 youths that are interested in taking part.
Partnering organizations that work directly with sports have manifested their interest in including the youths they serve with sports activities in the 0800 Rede Jovem, so that these youths can receive messages on sports, citizenship, gender and job-related opportunities.
Municipal governments have stated their interest in including youths benefited by governmental social welfare programs.
What are the main barriers to financial sustainability?
The cost of sending SMS’s is still high in Brazil and it is only reduced by reaching large scale usage volumes. Thus, it would be ideal to expand the project to at least twice its current size.
We seek businesses that are interested in funding the inclusion of these youths, in groups of 100 or 200.
The more cities are contemplated, the greater the cost of content production and forming networks of partners that help us seek for information and opportunities.
What is the origin of this innovation? Tell us your story.
I have been working with Programa Rede Jovem since 2000, seeking to expand youth opportunities by means of new technologies.
Rede Jovem has implemented community technology centers in partnership with community organizations in over 50 communities in all of Brazil. When visiting these communities, in order to provide capacity-building for youth groups, I realized that most of them, although very poor, had mobile phones, and that this could be an excellent means of communicating with these youths.
Projeto 0800 Rede Jovem was then designed with the Rede Jovem team to provide quality information to youths all over the country, in a fast, cheap and secure way. Its main purpose is to reach youths that find it hard to access the internet or other sources of information (newspapers, magazines etc.), but do possess a prepaid mobile phone.
After noticing this, we researched the sector and found that while the internet is present in only 14,5% of Brazilian households, mobile phones reach 68%. According to ANATEL (regulatory agency), of the 100 million mobile phones in Brazil, 86,6% are prepaid.
Among prepaid mobile phone users, 70% belong to less privileged social levels and 80% have between 15 and 30 years of age.
In this pilot phase, the messages bring different kinds of information, encompassing topics that we consider essential for productive and healthy growth: citizenship, sports, culture and work.
Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers marketing material.
I am Alice Gismonte, 28 years old, and I have been working for almost eight years with social issues and youth.
I am Brazilian, I live in Rio de Janeiro and I graduated in Social Communication, with specializations in Strategic Marketing and Human Rights. I wish to pursue a master’s in education and study social networks.
I currently coordinate Programa Rede Jovem (www.redejovem.org.br).
I like people and have faith in human beings. Always
How did you hear about this contest and what is your main incentive to participate? (this is confidential)
This field has not been completed
Affiliation (please list all that apply)
Nike
NBA Cares
 | mst fms said: Thank you very much for this information. Good post thanks for sharing. I like this site ;) ----------- ps3 oyun satış ps3 oyun ... about this idea. - 54 days ago read more > |
| hot hot said: Experts warn that accessing bank accounts from mobile phones may carry some risks of identity theft as hackers can use a simple text ... about this idea. - 115 days ago read more > |
| Anonymous said: Tendo sugestões, encaminhe para 0800@redejovem.org.br ok:> Abraços, Alice about this idea. - 342 days ago read more > |
| Louis Acheampong said: Olá, temos todo interesse em desenvolver um parceria com a Sec de saúde para um 0800 voltado para a saúde do Adolescente. Farei ... about this idea. - 342 days ago read more > |
| Kaushal Butoliya said: Obrigada pelo voto! Vamos passar pra frente e conseguir muitos votos! Com esse premio teremos muito mais chance de ampliar o projeto! about this idea. - 342 days ago read more > |
| Anonymous said: Thank you Bart, In Rede Jovem Program we believe, like you, that send information and knowledge to youth people is the best way to ... about this idea. - 342 days ago read more > |
| Karin Hillhouse said: Yes, Jasper. We can make this project more interesting and more valuable with other ideas like yours. This is just the pilot phase. ... about this idea. - 342 days ago read more > |
| Samit Shah said: Dear Ms. Gismonti: Thank you for participating in this collaborative competition. We value the time and effort you’ve put forth and ... about this idea. - 686 days ago read more > |
 | Sports and social transformation via mobile phones has been chosen as a winner in Sport for a Better World. - 743 days ago |
 | Sports and social transformation via mobile phones has been chosen as a finalist in Sport for a Better World. - 757 days ago |
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