Football and Citizenship
This project's parent organization is ACER Brasil
It operates in Brazil
It uses Football (Soccer)
Entered the Sport For Social Inclusion Award
More about Football and Citizenship
It's no cliché to say that Brazil is a country where football is King; it's simply a fact. To use any sport other than football to tackle the problems facing the children and young people of southern Diadema, São Paulo would be illogical.
Many of the problems these children and young people face are hidden; behind closed doors and confrontational personalities, behind a façade of pride.
Drug and alcohol abuse is a common problem within this community, equating to domestic and interfamily violence.
On the field, we tackle the resulting personalities of these problems using specially tailored games to increase interaction, problem-solving skills, conflict-resolution and teamwork. These training sessions are all-inclusive. Anyone can train with us and we hold special sessions everyday just for girls and young women, who face daily prejudices against their involvement in sport.
Through these methods, and keeping our door open to everyone, the children have shown massive increases in confidence and decreases in anti-social behaviour.
Increasing their interaction with each other decreases the likelihood of them resorting to violence against one another in the future.