COVID-19 Recovery
In 2020, Coaches Across Continents (CAC), with the Commonwealth Secretariat, created a play-based educational resource, covering issues such as anxiety, self-esteem, and stress. 96% of CAC partners reported the mental well-being of youth they engage has been affected by the pandemic. The resource seeks to benefit any organisation, community, coach, or teacher who interact with young people. The activities are adaptable to participant numbers and restrictions (distancing, hygiene etc) so they can be used in contexts where social distancing and hygiene measures are necessary.
In many ways COVID-19 has brought the world together as we adapt to the lack of travel and group experiences by connecting online and through messaging platforms. We can increase access to sport for development by designing interactive learning techniques accessible for all such as global video sharing and collaboration, active sport for development video games, and virtual reality technology.
COVID-19 has denied people the ability to socialise, play, and move, causing everyone to re-assess what really matters. One of the key opportunities the COVID-19 pandemic recovery presents to sport and play is that its benefits have been reinforced in people’s minds. We can build back better post COVID-19 by re-emphasising sport and play’s role in the emotional and social development of young people as opposed to primarily its role in elite talent development. Coaches using resources such as our Mental Health through Sport curriculum in their work will transform the perception of play in the minds of young people, parents, teachers, and communities.
CAC’s Creating Legacies 17 and The FBA Educational Partnership
Coaches Across Continents and The Football Business Academy have entered into an agreement that will see the Swiss educational institution collaborate with our global award winning network. Through this partnership, those enrolled in The FBA’s Professional Master in Football Business will have the opportunity to learn from CAC through internships and specific projects and, by doing so, provide new ideas and perspectives that go hand in hand to support our organization’s activities and partners.
“Coaches Across Continents is excited about our official partnership with The Football Business Academy. Having opportunities to work with their Candidates will benefit our Creating Legacies 17 brand that works directly with major entities including the Asian Football Confederation, Bloomberg, CONCACAF, Nike, Pathfinder Foundation, and the United Way. We first met at a Soccerex event and had our first successful internship this past year. We look forward to many more positive exchanges in 2021 and beyond.”
– Brian Suskiewicz, Chief Executive Strategist, Coaches Across Continents
“We are pleased to now officially welcome Coaches Across Continents into The FBA Family. The impact they’ve generated over the years and across the world has been incredible, and it encourages us to see how FBA Candidates can support their great team and partners as part of ongoing developments. CAC offers a great environment for challenge-based learning which can quench the thirst of those who are most passionate about social impact through football.”
– Kristian Dobrev, Chief Partnerships Officer, The FBA
CAC and Pathfinder International Expand Partnership in 2021
CAC and Pathfinder International Expand Partnership in 2021- Running the First Ever Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) and ASK for Choice Female Accreditation Program
Continuing on the incredible impact of our partnership with Pathfinder International and our Beyond Sport shortlisted program tackling Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights using Purposeful Play, we are delighted to announce the expansion of this program in 2021.
CAC and Pathfinder International will be be back in Zanzibar, Tanzania working with the Ministry of Sport, training 100 teachers from across the island in our SRHR curriculum while also equipping 20 female leaders with the tools and year round training to become CAC Accredited Coaches in Purposeful Play. Engaging women through sport has been difficult for the Zanzibar government but in partnership with CAC, they are breaking religious and cultural barriers. These elected female leaders will be the first women working in sport for development in Zanzibar.
The impact of this programming will see island wide education on SRHR, creating universal access to sexual and reproductive care, family planning and education on gender equality, addressing UNSDGs 3 Good Health and Well – Being, 4 Quality Education, 5: Gender Equality.
Sport for Gender Equality With GIZ
CAC is pleased to announce that we are partnering with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) to deliver a curriculum and training of teachers on the subject of ‘Sport for Gender Equality’. Over the coming months we will be designing specific Sport for Gender Equality curriculum, running online teacher trainings for sport for development instructors in the GIZ network and providing feedback and evaluations to assess the impact of the project. In particular this will focus on GIZ priority countries including Colombia, Western Balkans, Uganda, Morocco, and Indonesia. It is an honour to be working officially with GIZ having had many interactions with them and their sport for development experts in the past.
About GIZ
GIZ work to shape a future worth living around the world. This is GIZ’s vision and long-term goal.
GIZ provides tailor-made, cost-efficient and effective services for sustainable development.
About Coaches Across Continents (CAC) and Creating Legacies 17 (CL17) Influence
Coaches Across Continents is a global collaboration of communities, organizations, and coaches on six continents that impact the UN SDGs and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
CL17 Influence, a division of CAC, advises governments, confederations, global NGOs, policy makers, and key donors to create their global legacies, design policies, and address the UN SDGs.
CAC Shortlisted At Beyond Sport 2020
We are honored to be shortlisted for the Sport for Health and Well-being Award (SDG 3) Category at the 2020 Beyond Sport Global Awards! Our Sexual & Reproductive Health & Rights initiative with Pathfinder International has been selected by Beyond Sport as one of just 16 shortlisted initiatives (from over 270 applications). This year, as there will be no in-person Beyond Sport Awards they will be promoting the Shortlist through a digital communications campaign that will run from September through to early December. We are thankful to Beyond Sport for this opportunity to champion our work to a wide audience. We are excited about the upcoming Beyond Sport House online events taking place from October-November.
This is our 6th Beyond Sport shortlist. In 2009 we won the Best New Project Award. In 2014 we won the Corporate of the Year award for our Chevrolet partnership. In 2018 we won the Global Impact award.
For more information on our partnership with Pathfinder International please have a look at this blog about our partnership launch and this blog about the impact of our work addressing Sexual & Reproductive Health & Rights in Tanzania.
UEFA Foundation for Children Award
We are delighted to have been awarded a UEFA Foundation for Children Award 2020 as a result of our partnership with the English Football Association safeguarding the rights of vulnerable children in Bangladesh.
Coaches Across Continents, supported by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), the English Football Association (FA), the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) and UNHCR, will use the award to create Community Based Protection to safeguard the rights of vulnerable children in the Kutapalong Rohingya Refugee camp in Bangladesh. This project educates local Rohingya refugees to become football coaches across 25 different camps/districts within Cox’s Bazar so that they can engage boys and girls in their community on a weekly basis, and begin to impact some of the 500,000 children under the age of 17 living in the camps.
For more information on this work please check out these blogs:
https://coachesacrosscontinents.org/rohingya-refugees-and-un-sdgs/
https://coachesacrosscontinents.org/all-star-team-impacts-bangladeshi-and-rohingya/
Every year the UEFA Foundation for Children Board of Trustees ask the 55 UEFA member associations to nominate charities in their countries. In 2020 the Board of Trustees decided to divide the total funding – €1m – equally between 20 nominees, with the 20 organisations each receiving a €50,000 grant.
