Ball for All
Promote girls' sports in places where they do not exist as a way of empowering girls to become strong scholar-athletes.
About You
Contact Information
Title
Mr.
First name
Jeffrey
Last name
Chatellier
Your job title
Ball for All Board Member
Name of your organization
Ball for All
Organization type
NGO
Annual budget/currency
$10,000
Mailing address
Ball For All
P.O. Box 10418
Cranston, RI 02910
USA
Telephone number
401-946-6785
F-a-x number
Country
United States
Website
Email address
Alternative email address
Location
Project Street Address
Project City
Toubacouta
Project Province/State
Project Postal/Zip Code
Project Country
Senegal
Your idea
Choose your sport: (check all that apply)
Soccer/Football
If you chose "other" for Sport, please define in 1-2 words below
What approach does your initiative incorporate?
Knowledge/educational materials
Year the initiative began (yyyy)
2004
Paste your video code here:
If your project has a website, paste the web address here:
Plot your innovation within the discovery framework:
Barrier
Social stigmas and prohibitions
Insight
Embed sports with other activities
This field has not been completed.
Name Your Project
Ball for All
Describe Your Idea
Promote girls' sports in places where they do not exist as a way of empowering girls to become strong scholar-athletes.
Innovation
What is your signature innovation, your new idea, in one sentence?
Promote girls' sports in places where they do not exist as a way of empowering girls to become strong scholar-athletes.
How many people does your innovation serve or plan to serve? Exactly who will benefit?
We have worked with over 1500 youth in the Toubacouta school district. If girls’ soccer becomes promoted by the education ministry in the Fatick region, hundreds of thousands of girls will be impacted. If one regional education department in Senegal incorporates girls’ soccer into the elementary school curriculum, other regional education departments will do the same which could change the perception towards girls’ soccer in the entire country impacting millions.
Do you have any existing partnerships? If so, please list and describe.
We currently have a partnership with Google Grants (http://www.google.com/grants/). Google Grants awards free AdWords advertising to select charitable organizations. Since March 1, 2006, we have received more than $10,000 in free advertising on google.com
We have a partnership with Kaminski Fitness Bootcamp. This Canadian fitness company has featured our organization on their website and has organized fitness boot camps with the proceeds going to Ball for All. Their website is: http://www.calgarynwbootcamp.com/
Our organization is a part of Ebay's charity program where sellers can donate a percentage of their sales. The website is: http://donations.ebay.com/charity/charity.jsp?NP_ID=29459
We are an approved charitable organization in Facebook's Causes program. The website is: http://apps.facebook.com/causes/186096
In which sector do these partners work? (Check all that apply)
Citizen sector (non profits, NGOs) .
How do you implement your innovation and apply it to the challenge/problem you are addressing?
We start slowly and identify receptive school directors who are willing to hold village meetings and encourage local acceptance of girls playing soccer. We provide an incentive by offering scholarships for girls who participate in our programs. Projects are started only if we can offer funding for at least 5 years as changing attitudes towards girls in sports takes time. We require our local partners to take ownership of the activities we fund and encourage them to develop new ways to expand activities. This allows us to act as a catalyst of change that is implemented locally. As a result, we operate without local staff, saving significant overhead costs and enabling us to use the majority of funds for activities. Finally, our tournaments are high profile and bring excitement to the region. Village rivalries emerge and our message spreads as hundreds of people attend tournaments which then spread the word of girls playing soccer at advanced levels and earning scholarships.
Impact
Provide one sentence describing your impact/intended impact
Girls' soccer is now an official part of the elementary school curriculum of the Toubacouta school district in Senegal.
What does impact/success look like? Please list any tangible measures of the impact of your innovation
Our Impact
2005: Sponsored 4 Teams in Toubacouta, including the first girls’ team in the region.
2006: Sponsored large scale regional tournament with 13 girls' teams and 13 boys' teams with a total of 400 participants. Funded two school kitchens under the World Food Program.
2007: Sponsored regional tournament: 18 girls’ teams. 18 boys’ teams with over 600 participants. Provided scholarships to 146 participants that successfully completed their middle school entrance exams.
2008: Sponsored regional tournament: 24 girls teams; 24 boys teams with over 700 participants. Provided 275 scholarships.
2009: Continue our work in Toubacouta and expand our activities in Mauritania and Gambia.
Is there a chance that your project could change policy (within an institution or government)?
As a result of our project, the Toubacouta school district made girls' soccer an official part of its elementary curriculum. The education inspector of the entire Fatick region has also expressed his desire to replicate the Toubacouta soccer tournament throughout the region making girls' soccer available to hundreds of thousands of girls.
Aside from financial sustainability, how do you plan to grow the initiative or expand your intended impact?
We plan to expand activities slowly by targeting neighboring school districts. We are also working with Peace Corps volunteers by providing micro grants as seed money to start girls' soccer teams in other areas of Senegal, as well as Gambia and Mauritania.
This Entry is about (Issues)
Sustainability
How is your initiative financed (or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)?
Ball for All has made a conscious effort to use the power of the internet to reach a wide audience that includes donors from Europe, Canada, and Australia. Our organization is financed almost entirely through unsolicited private donations through our website. We also work with interested donors to organize fundraisers on our behalf which range from charity soccer tournaments to auctions. Our internet strategy focuses on building a large presence on social networking sites like Facebook and linking up with charitable giving programs of internet companies like Google and Ebay. We are also in the process of implementing an email reach out campaign that will use current email technology to track the impact of our efforts.
Financing source
Annual budget
$US 10,000 for tournaments- transportation, referees, scholarships, equipment
Annual revenue generated
$6900 US to date for FYE 6/30/09
Number of staff (full-time, part-time, volunteers)
We have 6 volunteer board members and 1 volunteer website designer. In Africa, there are 4 volunteers who assist with Ball for All activities.
What are the main barriers to financing your initiative, and how do you plan to address these barriers?
We plan to address our funding needs by submitting proposals that highlight our 5 year track record to large charitable foundations and continue to enhance our online presence. This year, we are submitting applications to Nike’s Game Changers and Tony Blair's Beyond Sport Initiative to connect with larger donors. We are also looking to leverage the power of multimedia by creating a YouTube channel that highlights our work and allows donors to see the impact of their donations.
What are the major challenges with regards to partnerships?
More partnerships can be created through more awareness of Ball for All. We are trying to address this issue of awareness through some of the channels mentioned above (applications such as this, a YouTube channel, a Facebook cause, etc.).
The Story
What stage is your project?
Ongoing project .
What was the motivation or defining moment that led to create this innovation? Tell us the story.
I remember watching my older sister try out for the all-boys Little League team. Back then, girls didn’t play sports. I remember clearly the sadness on her face when her name was not read for the team roster. But she didn’t let that experience stop her. Instead, because no girls' leagues existed, she joined a boys' soccer league, and went on to play throughout high school and college.
My sister, like many women during this time, overcame the obstacles and lack of opportunities for female athletes. Thanks to their generation, girls and women now enjoy the power of sport and compete at the highest levels.
As a Peace Corps volunteer in Senegal, I saw that girls worked tirelessly on chores like pulling water, washing clothes, and cooking, while their brothers played soccer and were able to play on the official school team. The memory of my sister not making the Little League team came racing back into my mind.
Ball for All is working to change this. In 2005, there was only one girls' soccer team in the Toubacouta region of Senegal. After 5 years of work sponsoring soccer tournaments and leagues, there are now 26 official elementary school girls' soccer teams in the area.
This year, we are hoping to double this figure by expanding to a neighboring school district. Our model of change builds on the existing capacity of local school districts and depends on raising funds to provide organized sporting opportunities for both boys and girls.
Please tell us about the social innovator behind this initiative
Jeff Chatellier began playing soccer when he was six. When he was asked to join the Peace Corps in Senegal to work on environmental projects, he jumped at the chance to live in a country where soccer is the national past time. As he played soccer with the boys in the village, he noticed that girls were missing. They were back home doing the difficult chores. With a grant of $100 from the Peace Corps, he started the first girls’ team. Ball for All has now contributed to creating 26 teams.
(Optional) To be eligible for an additional prize, please select age range
27 or older
 | bambalou said: Dream in color! about this Competition Entry. - 1068 days ago read more > |
| jessicamueller said: With every young woman you touch, there will be a story of change, of growth, of "I never thought I'd be...." and your program will be ... about this Competition Entry. - 1071 days ago read more > |
| mnlesley said: Research upon research shows that involvement in any extra-curricular activity or community involvement increases academic success and ... about this Competition Entry. - 1072 days ago read more > |
| Renata WomenWin said: Hello Ball for All, I would like to invite you to join the Women Win group at ... about this Competition Entry. - 1078 days ago read more > |
| BallForAll submitted this idea. - 1087 days ago |
Comments
Hello Ball for All,
I would like to invite you to join the Women Win group at http://sportforchange.changemakers.net/en-us/group/womenwin. Just click in join this group.
Women Win is the first ever international women’s fund that supports sport and physical activities as instruments for social change and women’s empowerment.
Women Win believes that sport is the way for women and girls to learn leadership skills, develop character, self-esteem and a sense of belonging, while at the same time discover the fun, support and power of being together.
Women Win is excited to be a part of the GameChangers Competition.
Women Win will use the competition to find a fellow between the ages of 15 and 65 years old that positively change the lives of women and girls in their community through sports.
Women Win has fellows and ambassadors who are brilliant, innovative and effective women who contribute significantly to the advancement of societies and address social problems through sports as a strategy. http://www.womenwin.org/fellows.html
We would love to hear your opinion on the topics debated here http://sportforchange.changemakers.net/forum/262.
All the best luck!
Research upon research shows that involvement in any extra-curricular activity or community involvement increases academic success and builds self-confidence. That is what this program will do!
With every young woman you touch, there will be a story of change, of growth, of "I never thought I'd be...." and your program will be the reason for these stories.
Dream in color!