Welcome Through Football to Hold Webinars Ahead of Project Phase Two Kickoff

Welcome Through Football to Hold Webinars Ahead of Project Phase Two Kickoff

Project partners in the Welcome Through Football programme will participate in a webinar that will be divided in two parts – the first held on the morning of September 2 between 1am and 1pm and the second one from 10am to 1:30pm on September 11.

During the first part, participating clubs and foundations will present their draft concepts, discuss how they will implement the project and the three project stages within their communities. The second will see EFDN and partners discuss the communication, monitoring and evaluation and financial elements of the implementation. Foundations and clubs will also receive training on how to use their Upshot accounts to input data.

Programme coordinator Martin Rijkhoff said the programme seeks to give participants a feeling of belonging even in uncertain circumstances: “The refugees and immigrants do this programme twice a week where they initially get football training. In an ideal world, they (first group of 20) should move to the next step, others want to get more responsibilities and additional assignments. Some begin to assist coaches with the new group in the first step after they have moved to the next one. Providing them with coaching skills makes them role models among the groups. And a good example of programmes using football as a social tool is Bayern Munich’s Alphonso Davies who was a refugee living in a camp and they had to move to Canada and now he is a Champions League winner and now he is a role model. And now also a huge motivation to many.”

Welcome Through Football is a project funded by UEFA Foundation for Children that started on January 1 and will run through June 2022 including five delivery phases. EFDN is cooperating with Shakhtar Social, Sheffield United Foundation, Fundacao Benfica, Naoberschap United (FC Emmen), Werder Bewegt, Everton in the Community and Apollon Limassol. The project methodology fosters the social inclusion and employability of young newly arrived immigrants and refugees. Therefore, activities are promoting the quality of youth work, the intercultural dialogue and strengthen knowledge and acceptance of diversity in society.

Moreover, the project assists football coaches and youth workers in the development and sharing of effective methods in reaching out to the marginalised target group, in preventing racism and intolerance. It follows on an initial 12-month project co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union that used the experience and expertise of five EFDN members to develop and deliver a comprehensive football-based social inclusion methodology, as well as to train refugees to become coaches to assist with their inclusion into society and the labour market. Through the sharing of best practice, knowledge and experiences Welcome through Football aimed to identify the key success factors in order to deliver and prove the methodology in the cities and countries of the initial five collaborating members. 

Welcome Through Football is a three-step process implemented via:-

1. Socialisation to sports – providing different football offerings for young refugees of both genders related to their specific requirements such as language skills or the possibility of trauma.
2. Socialisation in sports – working on team structure, giving more responsibility to the participants and offering additional steps out with the sports training sessions.
3. Socialisation through sports – Focusing on the skills the participants learn from taking part in the available offers so that they qualify for further education in and outside of sports.