CAC & The Sports Creative Launch Goals, Voices, Choices
May 20, 2022
Our long-time non-profit partners, Coaches Across Continents (CAC) and The Sports Creative (TSC) have teamed up to co-design a play-based curriculum guidebook. Called ‘Goals, Voices’ Choices’, the curriculum will be used by TSC coaches across their six community programs in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Villa Hermosa, Dominican Republic; Valle de Chalco and Mexico City, Mexico; Doha, Qatar; and Philadelphia, USA.
Previous Beyond Sport Global Award winners and shortlisters, CAC, instructs and develops coaches and educators worldwide deliver their Purposeful Play and Education Outside the Classroom curriculum. The organization provides on-field training, child safeguarding and focuses on education and community development aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
With the belief that every young person should have access to play in their community, TSC, creates community-led sports and arts programs for youth, supporting their physical, social and emotional wellbeing. Their programs are based on the conviction that young people understand their own context and needs and also contribute to multiple SDGs to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all.
The new curriculum aligns with TSC’s core model themes and CAC’s ‘Our Community, Our Voices, and Our Culture’ model, and will allow educational topics, typically delivered in a classroom setting, to be facilitated on the sports field. TSC has an existing activity pathway for all program participants, which includes individual storytelling, personal development exploration and creative art opportunities.
“We are honored to be given the opportunity to work closed with TSC. Having known about their unique process for the past two years, it is clear that they offer a level of youth empowerment that has not been seen before in the sport for social change sector. The importance of highlighting the voices and choices of young people cannot be underestimated in a world where youth increasingly feel powerless. We are excited to collaborate to enhance each other's work,” said Judith Gates, CAC Board Member and Educator.
This curriculum will link the activities to play-based games, which empower youth with confidence and supports them in identifying viable goals in wellbeing, education and their lives. By balancing play-based activities with discussion-based activities, the organizations will ensure that youth, with varying interests, will engage with the program and benefit from the opportunities provided.
“This new curriculum offers a powerful positive development path for youth, based on their goals, voices and choices. To play safely and inclusively, be heard and valued, and have choices and agency through opportunities,” said Dr. Renée Pirkl, Psychologist and Board member of TSC. “These core experiences increase self-awareness, self-esteem, and social skills, learning problem solving and collaboration, experiencing community and connection and building compassion, purpose and resilience.”
‘Goals, Voices, Choices’ will be the start of the collaboration between CAC and TSC, which flourished during their work together on the Rexona Breaking Limits Programme developed in partnership with Beyond Sport. Both organizations recognized the potential value of a collaborative capacity-building model by participating as program partners during the project.