Creating catalyst of change by empowering disadvantaged youth through sport.
Magic Bus is a non-profit organisation registered in India, with the Vision to bring about a paradigm shift in how communities behave, and to create bridges across social divides. Our programme empowers youth to take charge of their own lives in order to build an aware and strong community.
About You
Section 1: About You
Section 2: About Your Organization
Is your initiative connected to an established organization?
Yes
Organization Name
Childlink India Foundation/Magic Bus
Organization Website
Organization Phone
+91 22 4333 9393
Organization Address
Todi Estate, Room No. 5, Sun Mill Compound. Lower Parel W. Mumbai - 400013
Organization Country
India, MM
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
How long has this organization been operating?
More than 5 years
Your idea
Name Your Project
Creating catalyst of change by empowering disadvantaged youth through sport.
Describe your Social Enterprise
Magic Bus is a non-profit organisation registered in India, with the Vision to bring about a paradigm shift in how communities behave, and to create bridges across social divides. Our programme empowers youth to take charge of their own lives in order to build an aware and strong community.
Country your work focuses on
India, MM
Innovation
What makes your innovation unique?
Sport and play were very low priorities and lay unrecognised as development tools for child and youth-focussed NGOs in India. In 1999, Magic Bus identified a need and a gap in provision for at risk children and knowing that sport is something close to young people’s heart, started to work in a partnership model to take care of the emotional, social and cognitive needs of children and youth using sport as a development platform with a clear realisation that we needed to inculcate the personal and social learning and soft skills in young children in order to empower them as youth. India has the largest population of youths, who are critical for the development of communities. It is imperative that they be given a holistic development in order that the country’s social capital is strengthened.
Even before sport was recognised formally by the development community and hailed as a means of addressing the millennium development goals, Magic Bus was promoting the child’s right to play, and sport as a development tool. Sport was elevated onto the global agenda when the UN General Assembly in resolution 58/5 of 3 November 2003 meeting, declared ‘Sport as a means to promote education, health, development and peace’ (International Year of Sport and Physical Education, 2005, Final Report, UN http://www.un.org/sport2005/). Since then Magic Bus has been exposed to a worldwide movement of research and sport for development initiatives and has made major contributions to its proliferation through the sharing of best practice and our extensive grassroots experience in India.
Do you have a patent for this idea?
Yes
Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
Tell us about the social impact of your innovation. Please include both numbers and stories as evidence of this impact
The son of a fisherman, 21-year-old Ganpat lives in an 8 by 6 sq ft room in the bylanes of a slum in Mumbai. The space is occupied by his parents, two brothers and a sister. As a child, after attending school, Ganpat would while away his time watching movies or just walking around the lanes. After going through the Magic Bus graduation programme,Ganpat is now a youth mentor and is also doing his first year graduation.
Impact:
Increase in school attendance- At inception of the programme we had over 40% of children who were school dropouts. Due to our intervention today over 90% of the children attend regular schools
Increase in girl’s participation: Initially there was a huge resistance from the community to send their girl children to the programme. We had only 5% participation. In the last three years the participation has increased to 42% and has remained steady. The Magic Bus Girl’s Football team is entering the state league this year. Three of our participants now play for the state women’s team
Sustainable Livelihoods; Magic Bus Connect programme is offered as the exit strategy for all youths in the programme. Through this, the youths have started making informed career choices. Currently 85% of the target poulation are engaged in the Connect programme.
Our men’s youth team plays in the 2nd division in the Mumbai District Football Association. It is the youngest team in the league. Many of these youths could find employment with Magic Bus or the various football clubs.
Social Sustainability: Magic Bus graduates have started working in their communities using the medium of sports. In the next year these peers will run the programmes themselves allowing our mentors to start new groups. The first batch of graduates has emerged out of the programme.
Social cohesion: Formation of parents’ collectives and community tournaments has encouraged mothers and other family members to take interest in sport and its positive developmental effect.
Problem: Describe the primary problem(s) that your innovation is addressing
Magic Bus believes that the elimination of poverty is not an act of charity, but a basic entitlement, a human right. All our work is based on the principle of dignity and the ability of the individual to affect her life. That is where we see an opportunity for our human capital.
India has a diverse population of 1.2 billion and is the youngest population in the world - a huge asset to the country. Yet 1/3rd of the population lives below the poverty line with poor access to markets and infrastructure and prolific political and social inequalities.
It is now mainstream understanding that the key driver of poverty alleviation is the ability of an individual’s agency - her initiative and confidence alongside hard work - that is the main precondition for people being able to leave the condition of poverty. With this sense of belief and purpose, individuals actively create more assets, drive social cohesion, engage in political systems and start moving from poverty.
This is core to what Magic Bus does. We create a better sense of awareness, instil a sense of belief and provide the efficacy skills for individuals to take more control.
Actions: Describe the steps that you are taking to make your innovation a success. Include a description of the business model. What might prevent that success?
Business model
Magic Bus has a very well planned model of partnerships by which the programme reaches out to the children and youth in the marginalized communities thus impacting their physical and social environment:
Community partnerships were started with the objective of integrating communities by addressing issues like social acceptance, gender equality, health and hygiene and school attendance which have been identified by the communities themselves.
Partnership with NGOs working on children’s issues, and supplements their work by enabling personal and social development through sports. To increase outreach in this segment
Institution based projects is partnership with government to offer a programme that enables children and youth to develop both personally and socially, so they leave the institution as empowered citizens and integrate back into society.
National Programme
Magic Bus, today, has three distinct styles of hybrid interventions
The rural model involving Trainers, who train youth volunteers as Community Sports Coaches (CSCs)
The urban community model involving Trainers, who train youth volunteers as CSCs
The urban institutions model involving either teachers of Physical Educations in Government run schools or the programme staff of other NGOs and institutions
Our secret ingredient is the role models and mentors who deliver the programmes, who are young people from the very community we work. Magic Bus galvanizes communities and enables people living in the worst imaginable poverty to take control and make better choices, to make the decision to go to school, to allow daughters to go outside the house, to demand a cleaner environment and to make a sustainable livelihood.
We have measured impact with some of the best academic minds, we have built curricula that can be delivered by a teenage girl born and brought up in a slum, and we are now building the partnerships to spread our roots across India in a sustainable manner.
Factors affecting success
Lack of adequate play spaces near the communities
Parents disallowing girls to participate when they reach their teens
Lack of accurate understanding of sports for development as a powerful developmental tool (therefore struggle in fund raising locally.
Results: Describe the expected results of these actions over the next three years. Please address each year separately, if possible
Since inception to Mar 2010, Magic Bus has reached out to 140,000 children and youth through its direct intervention programme.
Magic Bus estimates that it will reach an additional 600,000 children and youth in 7 Indian states by 2012.
Offices 2010 2011 2012
National Office 1 1 1
States 2 4 7
Districts 8 16 28
Children reached 150,000 300,000 600,000
National Programme Contribution 55,000 195,000 495,000
Magic Bus has built its strategy for national growth around long-term local sustainability. Magic Bus will gradually reduce the deployment of staff in each of the communities and institutions it works in, with the ultimate objective of enabling the community to be self-sustaining socially and financially. Thus, by the fourth year of its operations in a State, Magic Bus programmes will reduce the staff strength in a district to 10% of the original number, without compromising on the number of children being reached.
In creating local sustainability, Magic Bus will be providing jobs for over 150 people in each state, as well as engaging approximately 2,500 youth as Community Sports Coaches (CSCs). The training that theses CSCs receive from Magic Bus, and the experience they garner in mobilising communities and delivering programmes, will vastly improve their prospects of gaining meaningful employment. Many of these youth could find potential employment within Magic Bus as mentors, or in similar programs sponsored by the Government.
Magic Bus’ goal is to reach over 600,000 million children and youth across India by 2012 and to then take Magic Bus to other countries such as Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
Summary of outcomes of three year expansion plan:
• Creating a pioneering and internationally scalable sport for development programme
• Raising awareness across India and with governments internationally of the power of football for good
• Working with over 600,000 children and youth in 7 Indian states.
• Formulating a sport for development programme that can run on approximately £7 per child
• Creating 1,200 new jobs across India, as well as improving the employability and life opportunities for over 20,000 young adults
How many people will your project serve annually?
More than 10,000
What is the average monthly household income in your target community, in US Dollars?
Less than $50
Does your innovation seek to have an impact on public policy?
Yes
If your innovation seeks to impact public policy, how?
Magic Bus wants to bring about a systemic change in communities, and, through advocacy, influence policy to recognize and protect the child’s right to play
In order to leverage on relationships with the Government and to influence policy, Magic Bus has opened a full-fledged Branch Office in Delhi. The Chief – National Programme is based in Delhi, and is responsible for ensuring the national growth of Magic Bus. An Advocacy cell has also been set up in Delhi.
Sustainability
What stage is your Social Enterprise in?
Operating for more than 5 years
Does your organization have a board of directors or an advisory board?
Yes
Does your organization have a non monetary partnerships with NGOs?
Yes
Does your organization have a non monetary partnerships with businesses?
Yes
Does your organization have a non monetary partnerships with government?
Yes
Please tell us more about how partnerships could be critical to the success of your Social Enterprise
Magic Bus works in a partnership model which has contributed to the success and scalability of its programme.
Community Partnership is at the core of its programme and provides opportunities for youth in disadvantaged circumstances to take charge of their lives.
NGO partnership Magic Bus offers its programme as a secondary intervention that compliments the primary work of the NGO.
Government Partnerships
By integrating itself into the programmes run under the aegis of PYKKA (Panchayat Yuva Krida aur Khel Abhiyan) and NYKS (Nehru Yuva Kreeda Scheme), Magic Bus can achieve a scale that the organisation could not even contemplate when it took the decision to move beyond Mumbai. The partnership with Government will help in influencing future policies.
PYKKA
Magic Bus has been part of the curriculum development team for the PYKKA training. Trainers from Magic Bus deliver the S4D module to the Master Trainers selected by the States under PYKKA.
NYKS
The objective is to mobilize youth across the country to run various schemes of the Government. Sport is fast emerging as a medium to engage youth volunteers, which opens up an area of huge opportunity for Magic Bus.
We would like to learn more about how your initiative is financially supported. Please explain your business plan/revenue model
Sustainability, both social and financial, has always been one of the primary objectives of Magic Bus. In the initial years, all resources (people, material and finance) needed for running Magic Bus were mobilised locally.
However, as the organisation evolved, Magic Bus realised that in order to grow in scale, it would have to invest heavily in programme development, organisational development and infrastructure. Magic Bus also sought funding to develop the strategies and put in place the systems to ensure scalability and long-term sustainability.
In order to be self reliant and reduce dependence on external factors, Magic Bus realises that it would have to develop diverse revenue streams. Magic Bus has identified five main revenue streams –
- Institutional Partnerships with Government agencies and other organisations
- Corporate Partnerships
- Retail – donations from individuals and merchandising
- Events
- Revenue from programmes at the Centre
In addition to these five sources of funding, Magic Bus estimates that it would generate an annual contribution as consultancy fees from the Training of Trainers (TOT) programmes that it conducts for various institutions and government agencies.
The Story
What was the defining moment that led you to this innovation?
The genesis of Magic Bus can be traced to February 1999 when Matthew Spacie started conducting informal rugby coaching sessions for disadvantaged youth in Mumbai. From those sessions grew the realisation that sports could be used to channel the energy of children and youth, to make a substantial difference in the lives of the participants. By 2000, Magic Bus discovered that the Outdoors was also an excellent medium to make a difference in the life of a child. In 2001, Magic Bus was registered as a non-profit organisation under the name Childlink India Foundation. In its formative years, Magic Bus partnered with other NGOs (Non-government organisations) and offered its programme as a secondary intervention that complimented the primary work of the NGO. In 2002, Magic Bus started its first direct intervention in the Dharavi Community.
By 2002, Magic Bus realised the need to develop a graded need- based and age specific curriculum. Over the years, Magic Bus has evolved into an organisation that empowers children and youth to discover their true potential and make better choices for themselves and their communities. By 2008, the Magic Bus programme in Mumbai was well established, and the organisation was ready to move beyond the city.
In 2008, Magic Bus opened three new project offices – one each in the predominantly rural districts of Medhak (Andhra Pradesh) and Chandrapur (Maharashtra), and one in Delhi.
Tell us about the person—the social innovator—behind this idea.
Matthew Spacie - Change maker
Our founder Matthew Spacie has been recognized and awarded at a personal level through various forums. In 2002 Matthew was selected to the Ashoka Fellowship program. Ashoka is the global association of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs—men and women with system changing solutions for the world’s most urgent social problems. In 2007, Matthew was awarded an MBE by Queen Elizabeth II. He is also an Ambassador for Beyond Sport, a committee chaired by former Prime Minister Tony Blair. Matthew was invited to speak at the prestigious TED conference in 2009, where he had the opportunity to speak to a large and influential community, about the power and impact of sport as a developmental tool. He has been the key note speaker at various development based conferences including BMW’s Young World Leaders Social Forum, TiE meets, the Commonwealth Games Conference, United Nations Conference and most recently, the HMC Deputy Headmasters conference in UK.
How did you first hear about Changemakers?
Friend or family member
If through another source, please provide the information
 | 102 weeks agoMeena Narayan submitted this idea. |
