Collaboration sits at the heart of Community Day
‘It is about collaboration; different stakeholders from different sectors, bringing people together, sharing resources and aligning approaches to develop an amazing community piece.’
These were the closing words of Florian Zech, Founder & Joint Managing Director of AMANDLA EduFootball as he wrapped up the Barclays Premier League Live Community Day, held in partnership with Beyond Sport on Thursday 17th March at the AMANDLA Safe-Hub in Khayelitsha.
Florian’s words summarised the central message that ran throughout the day - that with the right partnership, coupled with innovative approach, sport can provide an essential role in providing opportunities and pathways to development that can empower communities across Africa.
Beyond Sport delivered Community Day in partnership with the Premier League and Barclays to promote the power of sport in tackling key social issues affecting African communities. The event brought together football legends Robbie Fowler, Peter Schmeichel and Lucas Radebe, alongside NGO experts, leading corporate organisations and high level executives including the Premier League’s Executive Chairman, Richard Scudamore, for a powerful day of inspiring content and interactive on-pitch sessions designed to educate and share best practice amongst guests.
Beyond Sport CEO & Founder, Nick Keller welcomed guests emphasising the power of partnership, ‘today is about the coming together of different people from different walks of life, united with a common goal - empowering the younger generation, providing them with the knowledge and skills required, enabling them to find work and become effective leaders, and create positive social change. Working together we can take impact to a different level, with wide reaching effects not only here in khayelitsha but across the African continent.’
Hosted by SuperSport anchor Neil Andrews, the day kicked off with Barclays Premier League Ambassadors Lucas Radebe and Peter Schmeichel sharing their personal experiences with football and how sport shaped their lives. When asked what advice they would share with the youth of today, both players stressed the importance of education alongside discipline and team work; Schmeichel reaffirmed the need for collaboration saying, ‘First you must priortise education. You need to listen to your coaches, team mates and people with experience, because you can’t do everything by yourself.’
Onstage content explored how sport can provide a mechanism for young people to attain valuable skills with experts from the British Council, Premier Skills, Diepsloot Mountain Bike Academy and ABSA bank all giving varied insight and opinion from their respective sector. The day also looked at how innovation and enterprise could play a key role when looking at sustainable development programmes. ‘Learn, Collaborate, Co-create’ were the words used by AMANDLA EduFootball creators of Safe-Hub® , the internationally acclaimed youth and community development focused social franchise model, when explaining the process behind building an effective community programme.
Dr Robin Petersen, CEO of SAFA Development Agency who have partnered with AMANDLA EduFootball on the Safe-Hub model, further emphasized the benefits of a collaborative approach explaining ‘if we can combine the power of community engagement and development projects we not only cultivate talent at a grassroots level, we create strategic values that allow us to access funding on a shared value model.’
On-stage discussion switched to on-pitch action in the afternoon with practical sessions that addressed three key areas of community engagement: inclusive coaching; pathways to work and social action initiatives. Delegates enjoyed interactive sessions, led by some of world’s most impactful NGOs, enabling them to experience firsthand some of the practices that take place on the ground.
The highlight of the afternoon was when children from the Khayelitsha community got the opportunity to come and play on the Safe-Hub pitch, taking part in a bespoke coaching session with Graham Robinson, Premier Skills Head Coach and Head of International Development at Sunderland AFC; delegates were able to witness the importance of creating a safe environment where participants could come and play.
The day concluded with remarks from Richard Scudamore, Executive Chairman of the Premier League who called out to governments across the world urging them to ‘get real, get wise and start investing in amazing community projects like the AMANDLA Safe-Hub.’