Youth Empowerment through Sport (YES) Initiative
YOUTH EMPOWERMENT IN THE ANDES, THROUGH SPORT
CARE USA - July 2014
Introduction
CARE knows that sports and play are an ideal mechanism to engage, empower and connect youth, creating individual and social transformation and improving lives. Through the vehicle of sports, CARE has effectively reached thousands of youth around the world to improve their physical, mental, emotional and social development, and improve their communities, especially for girls.
We propose the Youth Empowerment through Sport (YES) Initiative, to reach 300,000 girls and boys in four countries that CARE and (DONOR PARTNER) will identify, over a three-year period (2014-2017) in order to promote greater use of sports for youth well-being, facilitate educational attainment and address social inequities.
Background
For a decade now, CARE has been harnessing the power of sports and play to facilitate social change. With youth education programming in over 40 countries, CARE has a significant global presence. This reach ensures that CARE’s work has both global and local relevance, with knowledge and learning flowing in multiple directions. For example, in 2012-13, our programs provided more than 6.2 million children and youth with improved access to school and better quality education.
CARE uses the convening power of sports to connect and engage impoverished youth, especially marginalized girls, with each other and their communities. Our programs use the best values of sports and play as vehicles for youth leadership development: challenging gender inequalities; improving education success; enhancing youth economic opportunities; and facilitating the social inclusion of marginalized youth. Our sports programming embeds life skills components that develop specific competencies in decision making, team work, confidence, planning and organizing, and communication skills; it also fosters appreciation for the value of education, tolerance, mutual respect, the promotion of peace and non-violent conflict resolution, and civic engagement. As a result, school attendance is on the rise, drop-out rates are falling, and girls especially are gaining newfound respect and unprecedented opportunities to participate in sports and other public forums.
We build on our sport and play programming and on learning and successes acquired since 2004 through initiatives such as our The Sports for Social Change Network (SSCN), The Innovation Through Sport: Promoting Leaders, Empowering Youth (ITSPLEY) program, and The Power to Lead Alliance (PTLA), which have included robust and at-scale partnerships with USAID and Nike Inc.[1]
Impact Areas
CARE’s sports and play initiatives seek to:[2]
· Support the growth and development of children and youth, especially girls – physically, mentally, emotionally and socially;
· Facilitate social change for development, particularly gender equity, which seeks to promote basic and universally recognized civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights;
· Build the capacity of global and local implementing organizations to more effectively deliver sport for social change programming and develop and test measurement and evaluation frameworks specific to these projects; and
· Develop and inform impact measurement for sports for development initiatives. CARE has invested heavily in developing tools that measure changes in gender perceptions through sports and leadership skills development. These tools identify indicators for the adolescent impact group that can be used to measure impact of their engagement in sports and leadership development on education, sexual and reproductive health, and civic engagement, among others, to demonstrate impact on social change.
Approach
CARE is a leader in youth sport-based programming for development because:
· CARE works in coalition;[3]
· CARE is a learning organization;
· CARE views advocacy as an integral component of all of our work;[4]
· CARE develops effective and adaptable tools and curricula for sports and leadership programming that are adoptable in different contexts, with special emphasis on youth and gender equitability.[5]
Of particular importance, CARE’s sports for social change initiatives are not stand alone but are integrated into multi-sectoral approaches to children’s and youth programming. They are based on a theory of change and guided by a results framework to track accomplishments.
CARE knows and believes, through experience and evidence, that social change—in this case, improvement in the physical, economic, political or social wellbeing of youth through sports—cannot be sustained unless programming addresses three components of empowerment: individuals, structures and relationships. Provided at right is an illustration of CARE’s model for empowerment applied to marginalized girls, which also holds true for youth and girls’ leadership experiences. CARE’s sports and play initiatives seek change at all three levels by underscoring: 1) competency development (individual change); 2) mentors and champions (relationship change); and 3) safe spaces (structural change).
Indeed, in many of the contexts where CARE works, particularly within the most marginalized communities, societal and cultural norms limit participation in sports to males. As a result, CARE’s sports activities do not stop at the level of individual change of girls and boys, instead, concerted efforts are made to address community structures and promote supportive relationships to provide opportunities for girls to participate in empowerment programs, including education and sports.
At the structural level, CARE also seeks impact on policy. For example, in Tanzania, working in Kahama district in the northwestern Shinyanga region, CARE’s sports programming served as a catalyst for the re-introduction of physical education in the primary school curriculum, reaching more children. In Egypt, CARE along with its local partners successfully advocated for the hiring of female physical education teachers so that girls could participate in sports, as males by law were not allowed to teach girls physical fitness classes.
The Opportunity
The Vision: In addition to benefiting from the health aspects of being physically active, involvement in organized sports will allow girls and boys from all backgrounds to break down social barriers and come together on the playing field,. We will create an enabling environment in which they feel more comfortable exploring serious and sensitive issues. We will promote the use of sports as an entry point into local communities to address the underlying causes of poverty and as a vehicle to achieve lasting social change.
We will achieve this by:
· Working with marginalized adolescent girls and boys ages 10 to 18, to make sports and structured play accessible to them by embedding sports activities in existing platforms such as co-curricular and extra-curricular activities;
· Building opportunities and capabilities for youth, with a focus on girls, exercising their leadership capabilities, and enhance their life skills to contribute to more equitable gender relations and participate in community development and advocacy;
· Contributing to social change by addressing attitudes and norms that limit the effective engagement of young women and girls in driving development. This includes ensuring greater choice in decision-making, reduced violence against women and girls, stronger social movements built on solidarity among women and engaging men as partners and champions of gender equity;
· Strengthening and working with local partners, such as sports-based organizations, NGOs, civil society groups and development organizations; building their capacity; increasing the number of sports-based community development programs; and promoting their programs’ sustainability;
· Building the body of evidence that shows when and how sport for change programs are most effective; and
· Contributing to the global discourse on the value of sports, play and recreation in driving development outcomes.
Roles and Responsibilities: In this joint initiative, CARE’s role will be to: (1) Lead the administration and management of the initiative; (2) Lead community-based implementation efforts of sports for social change initiatives through education programs; (3) Leverage an integrated approach with CARE USA’s Education, Sexual and Reproductive Health, and Economic Empowerment technical units in order to expand sport programming across CARE country programs in a cross-cutting manner and share key monitoring and evaluation outcomes with partner NGOs/community-based organizations (CBOs); and (4) Lead impact measurement and the generation of evidence
Goal and Objectives
Overall Project Goal: Develop youth leadership to promote well-being, enhance educational attainment, and address social inequalities through the medium of sports.
Objective 1: Cultivate opportunities for youth to develop and practice leadership skills through sports
Objective 2: Create partnerships to promote sports as a vehicle for youth empowerment
Objective 3: Raise up mentors and change agents that facilitate community support for youth engagement in sports and community action
Implementation
Background/context: One paragraph that briefly covers the following)
· National-level context and History/description of the problem at the national/regional level
El Perú, pese al esfuerzo e implementación de reformas en la educación nacional, continúa en condiciones críticas que exigen, innovación y eficiencia en la aplicación de las políticas educativas. En los resultados de rendimiento en Lengua y Matemática, en 6° de primaria y 3° de secundaria en los países de América Latina, se observa que en el Perú solo el 12.1% en 6° grado de primaria y el 15.1% en 3° de secundaria, alcanza el nivel suficiente en Lengua, ubicándose en el último lugar[6].
Si este contexto de la educación es crítico, lo es más la atención al deporte y a la educación física. Una de las manifestaciones de la situación es la subsistente discriminación de las mujeres en la sociedad y en el desarrollo de prácticas deportivas pues subsisten estereotipos de género enraizados culturalmente de que generan desigualdad y discriminación especialmente en su participacion es espacios fuera del ámbito doméstico. Estas condiciones se ven más claramente, en los eventos deportivos; el 2012 hubo un total de 4,289 participantes en actividades deportivas nacionales, de los cuales 2,752 fueron varones y 1,537[7] mujeres pese a que 49,2% de la población nacional es femenina. A nivel comunitario, la práctica de deportes para hombres y aun más para mujeres es tambien restrictiva,a falta de espacios, infraestructura o mecanismos que promuevan los deportes como un estilo de vida saludable contribuir a crear el bienestar psicológico, las capacidades de líderes y el empoderamiento de las niñas y las mujeres, al tiempo que mejora sus roles y su integración en la sociedad..
El presente año , el Ministerio de Educación, ha lanzado el Plan de Fortalecimiento de la Educación Física[8] y el deporte escolar para niños y niñas del nivel de educación primaria, generando una serie de directivas que favorecen la atención al deporte y educación física este nivel educativo,. Esta disposición, si bien abarca sólo el nivel primario y el aspecto escolar, en cualquier caso, da un marco favorable para una experiencia socio educativa como la que se plantea en el presente Proyecto.
· Justificación de la selección geográfica (Rationale for geographic selection )
El proyecto será desarrollado en 12 comunidades y 24 escuelas de educación primaria y secundaria de 08 distritos de las provincias de Carhuaz y Huaraz, de la región Ancash.
Figura: Ámbito de intervención del proyecto: Provincias de la Región Ancash.
Figura: Ámbito de intervención del proyecto: Distritos de las provincias de Carhuaz y Huaraz, de la Región Ancash.
En la región Ancash, CARE Perú ha desarrollado proyectos de Salud, Emprendimiento Productivo, Gestión de Riesgos por Deglaciación, Educación intercultural, Promoción de Clubes Líderes Juveniles, con resultados exitosos,lo que representa un punto de referencia para un trabajo pertinente y adecuado en estos nuevos ámbitos de características similares
En el ámbito priorizado, se estima que existen 563,195 mujeres y 579,214 varones de los cuales 304,096[9] son jóvenes(17 a 23 años), lo que representa al 37% de la población total. Las dos provincias seleccionadas, solo cuenta con una piscina municipal, ninguna pista atlética , casi nulo equipamiento deportivo en los colegios, igualmente las diversas ligas deportivas provinciales no cuentan con recursos ni instalaciones adecuadas; a ello se suma, la falta de programas sistemáticos, articulados y sostenibles de promoción y apoyo al deporte como medio fundamental de desarrollo integral.
A pesar de esta situación , las condiciones socio ambientales y geográficas son ideales para promover el deporte y el liderazgo juvenil ,especialmente de las niñas y jóvenes . Su ubicación y sus características andinas, bilingües: quechua y castellano, con alto porcentaje población joven, constituyen retos y fortalezas para desarrollar una acción integral deportiva y social con perspectiva intercultural, de igualdad de género y cuidado del ambiente, asumiendo un rol de experiencia piloto.
También consideramos un ámbito adecuado, porque las autoridades de Educación, Gobierno Local de Carhuaz y representantes de la sociedad civil del COPARE, y la Mesa de concertación de Lucha contra la pobreza de Carhuaz, se han sumado, con responsabilidad y empeño, a la identificación de necesidades de promoción del deporte,.
· Descripción del programa más amplio que este proyecto será parte de (Description of the larger program that this project will be part of)
EL proyecto “LIDERAZGO JUVENIL EN LOS ANDES, A TRAVÉS DEL DEPORTE”, se inscribe en una perspectiva de desarrollo integral para niños, niñas y jóvenes a través del deporte que les permita superar condiciones de marginación y atraso, valorando sus potencialidades y elevando su autoestima, para alcanzar niveles de bienestar y educación adecuadas a a su cultura y a las demandas del desarrollo universal.
El Proyecto se articula a las experiencias institucionales de CARE, que tienen una política de trabajo con la juventud, igualdad de género interculturalidad y cuidado del ambiente y con sistemas de rendición de cuentas que garantizan el logro de resultados.
Asimismo, se harán sostenibles los planteamientos y acciones del Proyecto, por la incorporación de políticas públicas en los niveles locales, regionales y nacionales del estado considerados como objetivo 03 del Proyecto. Particularmente con la política de fortalecimiento de la educación Física y el deporte promovido experimentalmente por el Ministerio de Educación, en el presente año, para el nivel de educación primaria en algunas escuelas.
Activities/Expected Results: ( Please include 1/2 page that covers the following components – if these are not yet known, describe at a high level or include language describing how they will be determined)
· Beneficiaries (direct/indirect; male/female) (Include both numbers and description of target groups)