The “Sport for a Better World” Competition, aims to find innovative
solutions and catalyze a community of changemakers around the use of sport to
improve community, accelerate development and drive social change.
Ashoka’s Changemakers and Nike have partnered to open a worldwide search for
projects that use the transformative power of sport to achieve real social
change. Between September 17th and December 4th, 2007, organisations are
invited to propose a way to leverage sport for positive social impact.
In January 2008, the Changemakers community will vote for three winners from
the 12 finalists who will be selected by our panel of judges – a group of
influential leaders in the field of sport for social change. The Changemakers
Collaborative Competition winners, the three finalists that receive the most
votes, will be announced on January 30, 2007 and will each receive a cash prize
of US$5,000.
Organisations are invited to join the dialogue, even if they do not submit an
application. Organisations can join the online Changemakers community to make
suggestions and recommend resources that will help refine and strengthen the
strategies presented by competition entrants. Players in the field are
encouraged to communicate what they are thinking, how they see the field and
where its challenges and opportunities lie.
The competition will be open to all types of organisations (charitable
organisations, private companies, or public entities) from all countries.
Entries will be considered that reflect the theme of the competition, Sport for
a Better World, and are at the demonstration stage and indicate success. The
winners of this Changemakers Collaborative Competition will be those entries
that best meet the following criteria: Innovation, Social Impact and
Sustainability.
There are three main phases in the competition:
• Entry Stage – September 17 – December 4, 2007
• Online Review and Judging – December 5 to January 9, 2008
• Voting – January 15 to January 29, 2008
For more information on entering, the online review, and voting please visit
the following website: http://changemakers.net/en-us/competition/sports
Ashoka’s Changemakers focuses on the rapidly growing world
of social innovation. It provides solutions and resources needed to help
everyone become a changemaker and presents compelling stories that explore the
fundamental principles of successful social innovation around the world.
Changemakers is building the world's first global online "open
source" community that competes to surface the best social solutions, and
then collaborates to refine, enrich, and implement those solutions.
Changemakers begins by providing an overarching intellectual framework for
collaborative competitions that bring together individual social change
initiatives into a more powerful whole. For more information, visit www.changemakers.net
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Ashoka community of changemakers
This is a wonderful way to both share successful and innovative tactics but have the opportunity to gain some financial rewards to put to further use to create change.
A great use of sports was the campaign in Poland, "Let's Kick Racism Out of the Stadium," highlighted in Rafal Pankowski's tactical notebook - "Breaking the Silence: Using Popular Culture to Engage Young People in Human Rights Reporting". This example from Poland was inspired by similar campaigns in England, Germany, Italy and Austria. To read more about this campaign and other ways of using popular culture for creating change use this link: http://www.newtactics.org/BreakingtheSilence
It would be great to hear other ways in which people and organizations have utilized the collective power sports for positive change.
"Never Again" Network
Thanks so much Nancy! This is fantastic. Changemakers will contact the Never Again Network and encourage them to enter the competition.
If there is other tactics and innovations that are using sport to bring people together, heal wounds and empower communities, please let us know.
Another great soccer example from Namibia
This also made me think of another wonderful example of how sports can be used to change communities.
The PEACE organization based in Freedomland, Namibia launched a community outreach program centered around the popular sport of soccer and built on the interest of a PEACE volunteer to launch the initiative. PEACE wanted to find ways to address trauma and domestic violence in a population that has no history of asking for or expecting psychological help. Rather than establishing a clinic and expecting people to come to the door, PEACE decided to utilize the wonderful sport of soccer as the entry point for community engagement. PEACE engaged in twice weekly soccer coaching for under 12 youths and sent its vehicle with the PEACE logo to each training as well as a resource person. Soon the community started to look for the van and to ask questions about the community support work that PEACE conducts. One issue that has emerged is that of daily violence in the family. It is common for parents to discipline their children by beating them and there is widespread violence against women. Some women have now started to take a stand by saying “Stop beating me or I will tell PEACE”. In another example, a mother came up after one game and asked for advice as to how she could address the problem of her and her son always quarreling. As a result of the interest generated by the youth team, PEACE has now helped start another soccer team for adolescents and young men in the community. PEACE is planning on establishing a permanent presence in Freedomland so that people can walk to their premises rather than have to take a taxi. This might be a peace shack where an Alternative to Violence Program (AVP) and awareness activities can be conducted on a regular basis. The trust and relationships built within the community through the PEACE soccer team efforts has now laid a firm foundation for these additional activities.
I hope PEACE will also apply for your competition!
AikiExtensions
I hesitate to add this under the sport heading but martial artists who practice Aikido are participating in AikiExtensions and Training Across Borders in the ongoing effort to spread the idea that peace is conflict as an art form with compassion and ongoing training.
Training Across Borders Seminars
By its very nature, aikido builds bridges. Its point is to empower and bring inner peace to practitioners, not vanquish an enemy. Its method is to connect with an attacker, not to counterattack. Its larger goal, for Founder Morihei Ueshiba, is world harmony.
Among groups beset by chronic tensions, aikido practice has been shown to enhance communication. Aikido workshops led Greek and Turkish Cypriots to confirm its benefits as an unforgettable peacebuilding metaphor. Croatian, Muslim, and Serbian practitioners trained together nonstop through the Sarajevo meltdown, and aiki training for Bosnian leaders outside the country led to peace-building projects.
Inspired by these visions and experiences, Aiki Extensions kicked off its Training Across Borders initiative with a momentous seminar in Nicosia, Cyprus on April 14-17, 2005. Since then, TAB has taken on a life of its own, with seminars in four sites across the world.
I need to go back a few emails to read again about the competition and perhaps post more later.
Brandon in Berkeley
Aikido initiative
Brandon thanks so much for sharing this. I was looking at their site and the idea is terrific - specially their "Trauma Recovery Project".
Excellent! thanks again. Roberto
Le sport pour un monde meilleur
Le concept est très intéressant et même très innovatif.
Dites-moi, quelles sont les conditions à remplir pour participer à cette compétition ?
BECHON Cyrille Rolande
NDH-Cameroun
32, rue polyclinque Bastos - BP 4063 Yaoundé - Cameroun
En français
Je regrette que mon français ne soit pas très bon, mais j'essaierai de mon mieux.
La compétition sera ouverte à tous types d'organisations (les organisations de la société civile, les compagnies privées ou les entités publiques) de tous les pays. Les entrées seront considérées en fonction de comment elles reflètent le thème de la compétition : le Sport pour un Monde Meilleur. Les projets soumis doivent être à l'étape de démonstration et doivent démontrer un potentiel de succès. Les gagnants choisis seront les entrées qui rencontrent le mieux les critères suivants : L'innovation, l'impact social et la durabilité.
Les gagnants de la compétition seront les trois finalistes qui recevront la majorité des votes, et ils seront annoncés le 30 janvier, 2007. Chaque gagnant recevra un prix d'US$5000. Les organisations sont invitées à joindre le dialogue. Les organisations peuvent joindre la communauté de Changemakers en ligne pour faire des suggestions et recommander des ressources qui aideront à raffiner et fortifier les stratégies présentées par les participants de la compétition.
Pour plus de renseignements, SVP visiter le site web suivant : http://changemakers.net/en-us/competition/sports
Interfaith youth core
This may seem a strange place to post about an interfaith movement but having just read the book by Eboo Patel, founder of the Interfaith youth core, it strikes me that the main message is how to bring young people of different faiths - but it could also be across many other barriers of race, gender, sexuality - together to work and play. In working together on different projects, or participating in a sports team, bonds are formed that transcend differences. As these bonds and teamwork form, it open a safe space to discuss differences.
There was a great article recently in the local Minneapolis Star Tribune about a youth soccer team that had brought together students from enormously diverse backgrounds, without a common language and how the coach had forged a common purpose for the team that transcended the language and cultural barriers and formed a winning team.
Women's Run in Casablanca
A really cool example:
Quote: "The 2007 "course feminine" 10K run took place in the streets of Casablanca in May. This event was linked to the Gender Equity in Sport for Social Change conference attended by activists, researchers and NGOs working in the field of sport for development from across the world. Nike invited Insight to carry out training in Participatory Video and expose grassroots partners to the great potential of this tool. As a result this film was planned directed and shot by social change makers from all over the world and by local Casablanca inhabitants connected to the associations: L'Heure Joyeuse and Initiative Urbain."
Early Entry Prize "Sport for a Better World" Competition
Wow! What a great competition! There are already entries from 20 countries! Also, Changemakers just announced an early entry prize that will be awarded to the best entry submitted before October 24th. The prize is a trip to the "Sport for a Better World" Change Summit! I really encourage people to check out this site! http://www.changemakers.net
Football helps bridge community gap for Georgian prosecutors
I came across this great notice from the Open Society Insitute that shows how sports is being used to bridge gaps in community relations.
"FOOTBALL BRINGS GEORGIAN PROSECUTORS CLOSER TO THE COMMUNITY" Mtskheta, Georgia, May 29, 2007—A football match recently played here before a national television audience illustrates that prosecutors can change the way they work. The match was the final game of a remarkable tournament that pitted prosecutors against high school students, police officers against juvenile probationers, and municipal officials against staff and juveniles of a local orphanage—all part of a community prosecution project undertaken jointly by the Open Society Justice Initiative, the Open Society Georgia Foundation, and the Office of the Prosecutor-General of Georgia.
The project's Mtskheta pilot site has been so successful in improving prosecutor-community relations that the Office of the Prosecutor-General is considering the launch of a second pilot site in another part of Georgia later this year.
The URL for this page is: http://www.justiceinitiative.org/db/resource2?res_id=103772
Nancy Pearson, New Tactics Program Manager
ExChange for Peace - Sports program
A New Tactics network partner, Centre for Human Rights and Development (CHRD) in Sri Lanka attended the Peace through Sports, ExChange for Peace program in Switerland about a year ago - October 2006. CHRD attended the 12-day program with 25 other participants from countries also experiencing conflicts such as Afghanistan, Nepal, Niger and the Sudan, among others. You can view the participants for the 2007 program.
I'd like to remind everyone of the Ashoka’s Changemakers worldwide search for projects that use the transformative power of sport to achieve real social change. You still have until December 4th, 2007, to propose a way to leverage sport for positive social impact or nominate an organization you think is doing great work in this area. Enter the Sport for a Better World competition.
You can check out the Early Entrant from Botswana - South East District Youth Empowerment League (SEDYEL). They have been selected to join the competition finalists at the Global Change Summit. Approximately twelve finalists will be chosen and three winners will receive each $5,000. Enter right away to win!
Nancy Pearson, New Tactics Program Manager
Deadline Extended
Hi all!
Just to let you know that the deadline for this competition has been extended until January 8, 2008. So far, there are over 200 entries from 50 countries.