Goals for Girls - Goles y Metas para las chicas
This entry has been selected as a finalist in the
Changing Lives Through Football competition.
The purpose of our project, Goals for Girls (Goles y Metas para las chicas), is to build the self-esteem of young women through sports: by way of weekly practices, and friendly but competitive soccer matches, we instill in them the fundamentals of teamwork and self-discipline as well as the sense that their participation, whether on the field or in their community, makes a true difference.
About You
Section 1: About You
First Name
Carolina
Last Name
Thompson
Organization
Democracia Representativa
Country
Argentina, C
Section 2: About Your Organization
Organization Name
Democracia Representativa
Organization Website
Organization Phone
+5491132373286
Organization Address
Lafinur 3269 1p 8, CABA, Argentina
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
Organization Country
Argentina, C
Your idea
Name Your Project
Goals for Girls - Goles y Metas para las chicas
Country your work focuses on
Argentina, C
Describe Your Idea
The purpose of our project, Goals for Girls (Goles y Metas para las chicas), is to build the self-esteem of young women through sports: by way of weekly practices, and friendly but competitive soccer matches, we instill in them the fundamentals of teamwork and self-discipline as well as the sense that their participation, whether on the field or in their community, makes a true difference.
Website URL
Innovation
What makes your idea unique?
Since the beginning, one of our greatest challenges has been to overcome the pre-existing stereotypes that girls of this shantytown, Villa 31, ought to stay at home doing housework and babysitting. For them to leave domestic or family duties to go and play soccer, traditionally a heavily male-dominated sport, was simply not an option.
Goals for girls also differs from other social projects offering recreational activities, as it has been created within an area of severe deprivation where all adolescents are vulnerable to not only the heavily present dangers around them, such as drug abuse and prostitution, but more simply to slipping through society unnoticed and ultimately being excluded from the normal roads to success and survival.
Aware that these youths cannot choose not to see or be exposed to these dangers, as they live directly in its path, it was identified that in order to achieve the success that these individuals deserve a stable alternative had to be in place as another option - the soccer team.
Goals for girls works hard to maintain group stability, support and acceptance for all regardless of age, colour, sexuality etc, with the ever present belief that we are like a family. Where many of the individuals who attend may have personal problems, the group remains small and personal so that all are comfortable, confident and known in their surroundings. Both staff and girls are committed, consistently attending and working hard to ensure that there is always support for any girl in need.
Do you have a patent for this idea?
Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
What impact have you had?
Fifty girls from this shantytown -Villa 31- finally have the opportunity, like other women of the world, to play soccer with other young women and ultimately gain from the many benefits of group interaction. Benefits such as: learning to work together to achieve a common goal; patience and respect for team members; exercising their social skills and making strong bonds. Through practicing a sport, they learn to live healthier lives, warding off dangers such as addictions and violence, and ultimately becoming empowered to make better life choices and achieve more fulfilling roles in their communities.
The girls train twice a week with a professional female coach. Once a week, they get together with a social psychologist to tackle issues such as: handling themselves as women; respecting their bodies and their health; discussing violence and prejudices, and emphasizing the importance of team dynamics.
Through our alliance with the “Programa Adolescencia” of the City Government of Buenos Aires, thirty teenage girls from Goals for Girls are receiving direct financial aid, allowing them to acquire essential equipment such as soccer boots, studs and balls, as well as providing a direct financial contribution to their household.
Thanks to our strong partnership with OSC Hecho Club Social, which organizes the Argentinean Selection for The Homeless World Cup, one girl from our project had the opportunity to take part in this worldwide competition last year which took place in Milan, Italy.
This year, four girls from Goals for Girls will travel to Copacabana, Brazil, to represent our country and live this unique life changing experience.
Problem
Villa 31 is the largest shantytown in the city of Buenos Aires, giving home to more than 20,000 families. It is located near the main bus and train terminals.
The project Goals for Girls began in May 2006, when a group of parents from Villa 31 decided to invite volunteers into their community to begin a sports program. The parents identified a severe lack of recreational activities available in their neighborhood for teenage girls facing the potential dangers of drug addiction, prostitution and violence. They chose soccer as the main activity and looked to address other possible activities as well.
Goals fro Girls focuses on teching girls aged from 11 to 21 years old self confidence and teamwork through sports. The objective is to provide the tools for them to overcome the prejudice and obstacles that their harsh living conditions present to them.
Soccer is taboo for women in Argentina. In their struggle to forge a real team, the girls have to deal with deep-rooted sexism within their families: confront boys who don´t respect their rights to use the field, and learn responsibility and the value of team effort.
Actions
We gradually started offering:
• Trainings twice a week, which while strengthening the group and creating valuable bonds among the girls, nurtured the sporting potential of each member of the group.
• Friendly matches with other teams, braking preconceptions such as, “nobody dares to come into the villa to play.”
• Emotional support through that of our social psychologist, Liliana Cura, present throughout training, games and special events. Furthermore, group discussion began once a week led by Liliana: any group problems can be approached and resolved within this space, even proposing their needs and evaluating their resulting options.
• Entry into ‘La Liga Urbana’ (the Urban League) and participation once a month in “fútbol calle”, allows the group collective to continue to grow.
• Inner-town/Inter-neighbourhood competitions.
• Specialist talks given on gender, sexuality and reproductive health and women rights.
• Special day long events and end of the year trips.
Results
Leadership: The girls participating in the program follow the rules established by themselves as a group. Furthermore, through the soccer team, they have a chance to reach their full potentials as young leaders. As a result, they build self-confidence as they become more vocal. This continues to expresses itself with greater strength throughout training sessions and games, as well as in the life choices they make as they go along.
Gender Awarness: By taking part in a team, the participants are growing into gifted and independent women, fully aware of their worth, whilst acknowledging the value of a shared, team effort.
Health Education: Through informal talks, the girls are provided with essential information about hygiene, sexuality, safety and general well-being. Thus, these girls are now being empowered to take better care of themselves with the intention that they become healthy, strong and educated, wonderful women.
Vocational Training/Orientation: The girls now have strong guidance enabling them to think about their futures. We can now reach out into our network to offer them orientation, tutoring, mentoring, scholarships, and job training opportunities.
What will it take for your project to be successful over the next three years? Please address each year separately, if possible.
2010-2011:
• Funding - this will allow us to gain a second trainer and meet the growing number of members in the project.
• Competing - the girls utilze opportunities within the villa to organize a local tournament, as well as creating a second tournament with other female teams outside the villa.
• World Championship – Successful participation in the Homeless World Cup Championship 2010, which will be hosted this year in Copacabana. Río de Janeiro, Brazil.
• Extending Support – making sure that particpants have a “life plan” after finishing school. Aiding the girls with such resources as conuselling, training and employment opportunities, etc.
• Contacts – Strengthen existing alliances with non-profit organizations ‘Soccer Without Borders’ (http://www.soccerwithoutborders.org/) and ‘Help Argentina’ (http://www.helpargentina.org/en) as well as the Government of the City of Buenos Aires, Unilever and Nike, whilst simultaneously creating new contacts.
2011-2012:
• Funding – Ensuring that permanent sources of funding be secured, allowing the project´s gowth to be steady.
• Resources – Having the human, financial and physical resources to continue enrolling more girls into the project, therefore meeting the growing demand within the villa. At the same time this will ensure smaller group numbers, ultimatley allowing the intimacy of professional contact to remain intact.
• Political Change – by using the project´s success as a template for other NGOs, a network of organisation who use sports as a tool for social integration in Argentina can be created with the hope of eventually affecting public policy.
2012-2013:
• Funding – is now larger, permenant and completely secured.
• Giving back to the community – that the girls are able to continue the success in their community by training younger generations.
• Repeating success – that the project be replicated in another villa.
What would prevent your project from being a success?
Lack of resources which would inhibit the growth and development of the project, and that we don´t reach as many girls as intended.
How many people will your project serve annually?
101‐1000
What is the average monthly household income in your target community, in US Dollars?
$100 ‐ 1000
Does your project seek to have an impact on public policy?
Yes
Sustainability
What stage is your project in?
Operating for 1‐5 years
In what country?
Argentina, C
Is your initiative connected to an established organization?
Yes
If yes, provide organization name.
Asociación Civil Democracia Representativa (Representative Democracy Civil Association)
How long has this organization been operating?
More than 5 years
Does your organization have a Board of Directors or an Advisory Board?
Yes
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with NGOs?
Yes
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with businesses?
Yes
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with government?
Yes
Please tell us more about how these partnerships are critical to the success of your innovation.
Since its birth, our project has received most of its funding from NGO Soccer for Success (S4S), created by volunteer Allison Lasser , co-founder of Goals for Girls. Recently, S4S has become part of Soccer without Borders.
We have aligned ourselves with NGO HelpArgentina, which acts as a bridge connecting international donors and Argentinean organizations, significantly helping in the donation process. It also monitors and evaluates our project as an impartial third party.
In 2009 we started a partnership with Programa Adolescencia from the Government of Buenos Aires, which offers scholarships for the girls, as well as institutional aid for the project. In addition, they connect us with programs and organizations which bring in much needed resources.
Hecho Club Social organises the Urban League (a day long tournament event) every month -which we never miss- among other major events. We both share the vision that soccer can be a powerful tool for social integration.
What are the three most important actions needed to grow your initiative or organization?
1.Sustain and enhace resources to assure the continuation, expansion, and self-sufficiency of the project, by:
• keeping in place and regularly reinforcing our alliances with Soccer Without Borders, Help Argentina and the Government of Buenos Aires, as well as working hard towards enhancing the support of current partners and donors (Unilever, Argentinean National Goverment, Nike, among others)
• incorporating new private donors such as national and multinational enterprises, foundations and organizations
• building bridges across the world in order to achieve new cooperation projects with Civil Organizations in Europe as well as in the USA. We are already developing a strong international partnership with Italian CSO “Progetto Integrazione” based in Milan, adding to our already firmly established connection with Soccer Without Borders, a well developted CSO based in the USA and currently running projects in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala, among others.
2.Expand the working team in order to have at least one trainer for every 20 girls. Open a new group in villa 31 to meet current demand. We aim to replicate in at least one other severely under-privileged villa (neighbourhood) of Buenos Aires City.
3.The most experienced participants from Villa 31 who feel the drive to train other girls will be able to do so in the near future.
Amongst the participants of Goals for Girls, there are a select group of girls who will undoubtedly choose sports as their main career. With projects like this one, they can eventually grow from trainee to trainer, allowing them to acquire a new source of income for a job, which they will then be more than suitable for.
In this way they can transmit all they have learned to other future participants, and thus empower their fellow peers to fight, among other things, for their right to play.
The Story
What was the defining moment that led you to this innovation?
American Allison Lasser was the first volunteer to create and lead the project “Goals for Girls” during the year 2006 while she was living in Buenos Aires, running practices and games for a group of 15 adolescent girls.
The defining moment was surely at the end of 2007, when Allie had to return to the United States, and the question of what would happen to the girls without her was a major concern in the group. As she had always promised, Allison vowed that she wasn´t going to leave the girls abandoned and without the group they had all worked so hard to bring together.
She acted quickly, looking for a female trainer, suitable for the job, and a commited organization able to successfully carry on with Goals for Girls without her. This was always going to be a huge challenge due to the unique circumstances of many of the members social backgrounds.
Allie and friends founded a non-profit organization, which they called “Soccer for Success” now part of Soccer Without Borders- based in San Francisco. This enabled them to fundraise from home for the girls and the project.
They recruited the help of Santiago Mariani, founder of CSO Democracia Representativa in Buenos Aires, to run things on the ground in her absesnce. CSO Representative Democracy was approached for its previous experience in Villa 31 and decided to commit to running the project from then on.
The addition of Mónica Santino, the then new coach, to the team was a vital step in the project´s development and without doubt one of the greater challenges the group (both girls and staff) would encounter.
Mónica Santino had started a similar team just outside Buenos Aires, and had a great deal of experience in women´s football and gender issues. As well as having previously played as a midfielder for the -rather ironically named- Argentine Club “All Boys”, Mónica is a register coach and has managed the girl´s football team since Allison´s departure. This did not detract from the reality that handing over direct contact with the girls from one individual (Allison) to another (Monica) would require great commitment and perseverance.
The girls were naturally disappointed at the departure of the group founder but with the unfailing persistence of the girls, Monica and soon after Liliana Cura and Carolina Thompson, all have grown to trust, respect and communicate well creating a stable and reliable environment for all group members. This was truly a remarkable achievement for both girls and staff as often this can be difficult to encounter within villa life.
Tell us about the social innovator behind this idea.
Goles para Chicas, the original name of the project in the Villa 31, was birthed by a graduate student from the United States, Allison Lasser. Allison had played soccer since age 5 and learned primarily through volunteer coaches. She fell in love with the sport, and committed much of her life to training and playing competitively. Her commitment lead to college soccer and to coaching youth during summer breaks. Much later in life, and after a few years of living abroad in different countries in Latin America, she received a scholarship to do graduate work in Buenos Aires. Immediately after arriving, she noticed the lack of organized soccer for girls, especially for girls from-low income families. Knowing she’d be there for 2.5 years, she wanted to give back. She wanted to help other girls experience organized soccer as she had. She knew it would change their lives, just as it did hers.
Through a friend at the university, who worked in a UNICEF program in the Villa, she was introduced to families with young girls. Allison reached out to other parents, offered her time and perspective, and asked who would be interested in exposing their girls to soccer practices. For many years, a gentleman in the Villa had taught boys but never had a female coach worked there. A number of parents were skeptical. They were concerned their children would get hurt, and they were concerned their children would be called names. At the same time however, parents expressed their concern with the lack of safe activities for their girls. That same week, Allison started practice. She held practices 2-3 times each week and helped the girls arrange tournaments. As she neared the end of her time in Argentina, she sought out local and international partners to ensure the program’s continuity. She recruited additional volunteers to keep the program strong, and to expose the girls to different realities.
Above all, Allison knew that despite poverty, a lack of opportunities, and the intense stigma felt by slum-dwellers, that the girls’ participation on a soccer team and their intense commitment to one another could increase their desires to be leaders in their families and in their communities. In the 2 years that Allison had with the girls, she saw dramatic transformations in their soccer skills, self-confidence, ability to solve conflicts, and their trust in themselves and in each other.
How did you first hear about Changemakers?
Through another organization or company
If through another, please provide the name of the organization or company
FARN. Fundación Ambiente y Recursos Naturales
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