“Game Changing”

The Game Changing Project is a collaboration between the Erasmus+ National Agencies of Cyprus, Turkey, Italy, Portugal and UEFA, with the support of the Cyprus Football Association (CFA), the Football Association of England (FA) and the Romanian Football Federation (FRF).

The project aims to link the ‘worlds’ of youth work and football, so as to foster constructive and mutually beneficial cooperation between them, with a specific interest in supporting youth participation, social inclusion and women’s empowerment. Through this cooperation, the partners expect that the outcome of this project will be beneficial for young people, girls/women and under-represented groups, in their realms.

The Game Changing project includes two events that are designed to enable youth work practitioners, representatives of National Football Federations/Associations and young changemakers to learn from each other, to exchange best practices, as well as to initiate and develop collaborative projects in the framework of the Erasmus+ EU Programme, as well as of other programmes from the football and youth sectors:

Phase I: Contact Making Event (CME), to be held in Cyprus, 7 - 11 May 2019.

Phase II: Seminar in Turkey, in June/July 2019 (TBC).

Participants’ Profile

We are looking for 30 participants with the following profiles:

1. Youth work practitioners with experience in the fields of women’s empowerment and/or youth participation in civic life and decision-making, and/or social inclusion of under-represented groups, as well as with experience/an interest in collaborating with the football/sport sector.

2. “Young champions” – young changemakers aged 18 to 30, active in their communities, sport clubs or organisations, with a strong interest in football, willing to develop collaborative projects with the other actors involved in this initiative.

3. Representatives of National Football Federations/Associations with an interest in the themes of the project (youth participation, social inclusion and women’s empowerment) and with the capacity to develop new initiatives in their organisations, or implement constructive changes in the existing policies and programmes that will be generated as outcomes of this project.

Selected participants are expected to attend both events in order to maximise the impact of the project both on their development as active agents in their work, and on the progress of their organisations. Participants are expected to be willing to develop cooperation projects between football and youth work after the two events of the project.

Targeted Outcomes:

The creation of a network of 10 “young champions”/ young changemakers.

A better recognition of the important role that youth work plays in society (value creation, young people’s development and sense of belonging to society, etc.).

A new culture that will result from merging the youth field and football, characterised by innovative participation methods, such as co-management, deliberative participation, co-creation, participatory spaces, etc.

A review of programmes, structures and processes in line with best practice in diversity, equality, solidarity and inclusion.

An increase in young people actively engaged in policy, governance, decision making and programme implementation in football.

Better representation and engagement of young people in the structures of football (specifically females and ethnic minority groups).

The development of a common research agenda between the “worlds” of football and youth work.

A variety of developments by National Football Federations/Associations that will result from this project, i.e. setting up youth councils, developing more inclusive policies and programmes, setting up youth and female leadership programmes, etc..

The development of follow-up projects, e.g. cross-sector collaborative projects, toolkits, research maps, etc.