Social Inclusion and Integration
This project's parent organization is Football Association of Ireland
It operates in Ireland
It uses Football (Soccer)
Entered the Sport Federation or Governing Body of the Year
More about Social Inclusion and Integration
Four outreach programmes make up the core participation initiatives designed to promotes social inclusion/integration and increase participation & include programmes for children, adults and youth.
1. ‘My Club’ After School Programme: A six-week after-school club-link initiative. Sessions focus on football and life skills development & are delivered one day per week in schools that have greater than 10% of its student population coming from international/ethnic minority backgrounds. Parent/Guardian volunteers are also recruited to support the programme.
2. Club Open Days: Designed as a one-day ‘taster’ session with the focus on fun football activities for children aged 6-13 years, Club Open Days are run by the FAI’s network of Development Officers in conjunction with clubs in their areas.
They are designed to introduce people in the local community to their football clubs and forge links between clubs and players and their parents. Club Open Days aims to achieve 10-15% of participants from ethnic/cultural minority backgrounds and this is addressed in a targeted way at the planning and promotion stage for the Open Day. For example, children and volunteers attending the after-school programme above are invited to attend the Club Open Day and multilingual material is used to promote the Open Day through identified effective local channels.
Urban Youth Blitzes: Football programmes are run in major urban centres of population for young people between the age ranges of 15-19 years. Programmes are run and promoted in conjunction with agencies that work with youth, including national and local youth organisations.
Adult Futsal Leagues: 6 -8 week ‘taster’ Futsal based league for adults (men and women). Although Futsal is a relatively new game to Ireland, many other countries have an established history of the game. As result, many of the newer migrants to Ireland are familiar with the sport and, therefore, this method of football delivery has a stronger appeal than, say, the 11-a-side game.
Futsal also provides an ideal opportunity for people of all ages to get involved in regular health enhancing physical activity and thereby achieve the recommend levels for sustaining good health. ‘Taster’ leagues are encouraged to affiliate long term to the FAI, thus acting as a network of structured satellite Futsal leagues and building adult long term participation in futsal.