Dear Tim:

Thank you for participating in this collaborative competition. We value the time and effort you’ve put forth and we would like to offer you feedback and some thought provoking questions from our Evaluation Team.

The program is the only one of its kind to target youth offenders in Cape Town by providing a variety of life skills training. Its focus on reducing repeat offense by linking youth with community-based organizations while attempting to learn from the experiences of related initiatives is especially innovative. The program’s impact has grown substantially over the last three years, and its model is potentially replicable in other areas. However, a reliance on overseas funding raises questions of financial sustainability in the long-term.

Please use this input as both potential insights into your innovations, as well as constructive ideas for how to improve or grow your organization.

Warm regards,
The Changemakers Team

Hi Tim

Just a word to say that this is so awesome. Hiving hope to the hopeless, preparing valuable young lives for re-integration into society after their release is so EMPOWERING! Wish there were more of this taking place elsewhere. To you and the TEAM, well done and keep the faith.

SOLA FIDE

Jess

Hi Tim

Great to see AIS as a finalist in the competition. I hope you get some of the recognition you deserve for the fantastic job which you and the team do.

We run a soccer program in Lwandle and have benefitted by attending one of your coach training sessions.

Keep up the good work.

Andy Hawkins
Thembalitsha
Somerset West

Great program - keep up the good work!

I HAVE LIKE THE VISION OF HOPE FOR CHANGE.WE NEED SUCH ORGANIZATION IN AFRICA,TO GIVE HOPE TO THE YOUTH THROUGH SOCCER.THIS IS A SPORT THAT IS VERY POPULAR AROUND THE WORLD. I GIVE THIS ORGANIZATION MY VOTE

DALISO MWALE

Hi there,
I just wanted to express my deep admiration for your project. In the past year I have done a lot of research on projects that use football as a tool for community service etc. in Africa but this is the first time I encounter a project that targets juveniles- and I have to admit that football is probably one of the best ways to reach this group especially youths and young adults. I did volunteer work in India, Egypt and South Africa and I always realized that one of the absolutly biggest problems that the young people I worked with had, is that they grow up without role models, family bonds or some kind of community feeling. I guess by providing the youths with a "team family" you give them the chance to feel connected to others. Another point that I think is great is that you help the youths after they leave prison. After reading your last comment I was wondering if there are players with different faiths than christian how do they fit into the group? are they completly integrated and do they take part in for example the bible studies? did you think about may be having someone who got reintegrated into society after taking part of your project come into prison to act as a tutor or peer model?
thank you

Katharina Meyer-Seipp
Spirit of Football Project Group
University of Erfurt

http://www. piritoffootball.com

Kevin Carroll
Changemakers Featured Commentator
Sport for a Better World Competition

There is a rich history of soccer in South African prisons. When Nelson Mandela was imprisoned at Robben Island, soccer became like a religion to the inmates – to the point where the guards would no longer allow Mandela to attend the matches. Talk about the power of sport! Tapping into this history is one of your program’s strengths.
How do you identify the young people who participate in the soccer academy? Is there an opportunity for the boys who may not be skilled as players but who love the game? Could they participate in other capacities so that your program is as inclusive as possible?
Perhaps you could partner with the South African Football Association to provide skill sessions and other training to raise the level of expertise for your participants. Professional training like that would add to the boys’ belief in themselves and sense of self-worth.
I think this is a really great idea and I commend you for your work!

Tim Tucker
Ambassadors in Sport
Pretoria, South Africa.

Hi Tim, it is true that many organizations shun away from faith based groups, for reasons I do not always understand. Everyone believes in something, and that belief, whether its spoken or practiced openly or not, is what causes them to do what they do. Respect talks to everybody, no matter what you believe, and it is something that is very important in relating to the different folks around the world. DisRespect tends to Dis, and cause people to miss out on getting to know others.

I did not think of these young men as prisoners in this video. If it had not been for the bars, I would have seen them as members of a disciplined football academy, who believed in the gospel, - good news, that's what gospel means, and that's what these young men projected. Even with the bars, the spirit of belief in that they were accomplishing something, came across very well.

I would like to collaborate with you in Future Stars, in the future. We are looking to make a series of teaching videos based around soccer, that would teach about character, and other social development skills that many of these guys are yet perfecting in the environment that you are providing for them. We also want to deal with other topics that young and old soccer players, coaches, and fans face in the practicing and competitive moments of the game, and things that they have to deal with in every day life, like RESPECT, AIDs, trust, honesty, study is fun, etc. I work with the team Future Stars, in the Buduburam Liberian Refugee Camp. They are about the ages of the young men in your video. We want to use the youth to help to get the message about how youth in sports is a positive opportunity and impacts many ages, worldwide. Soccer lovers would naturally be drawn to these kinds of messages, because they've been in the T-E-A-M environment that soccer encourages. Your video did help me to see the kind of impact that this could make on me, and other individuals.

thanks,
lady a

Your programme is interesting and similar to what we do in Ghana. I would apprecicate if we could work together to benefit from your rich experience in South Africa and exchange ideas. We are currently working in 3 adults, one juvenal prison(s) and 15 non prison communities.

Hope to hear from while thanking for all what you do

regards
Adu

I agree, Timothy, with the tenor of the previous comments that prisons are certainly one environment where the presence of sports as a vehicle for rehabilitation is most needed. Whether it be motivated by religious principles or a strictly secular analysis, your decision to take soccer through the academies into Pollsmoor and Leeuwkop prisons is well-founded.

Have prison administrators and local government authorities generally been supportive of your efforts? Indifferent? Resistant? I was wondering if, over time, you might be able to demonstrate that recividism declines in the presence of your programs and thereby be able to negotiate the release of official monies to subsidize your efforts. Admittedly, government funds are not easy to secure, and even when one can, they may come attached to consequences which you'd prefer to avoid. Still, official resources would reduce the extent to which you have to secure private donations and extend the reach of those sponsorships which you do have.

Steve

Timothy,

Thank you for sharing this most interesting program with us. I think that the prison system is too often overlooked as a place in much need of reform - but reform that is entirely possible if approached the right way. And this model that you have in South Africa certainly is replicable all over the world. I have done a fair amount of work with US prison reform and it still fascinates me that more is not done to rehabilitate prisoners during their time served. What strikes me as an essential component to this framework is its relationship to human rights. One thing some might not think about is that, if not in a program such as yours, these youth would be left with no outlet for appropriate physical activity. Not only does this program provide them with that basic human right to sport, though, as it uses sport as a tool to teach the vital life lessons that they must learn in order to reenter society rehabilitated.

I also agree that one of the most impressive aspects of the program is that you also provide support for these youth once they have left the prison system. Although their lives may have been changed while in the program, if they are not given sufficient support once "on their own," regardless of their personal transformation, they are too likely to fall into the stereotype of ex-convict, unable to get a job, unsupported and then return to former behaviors. That you set them up to continue their contribution to society is very well constructed.

My one question is, how do you select candidates for the program? You noted that you chose individuals that already had some soccer skills, but what about those that don't, but still have a RIGHT to participate in sport and a right to reap the benefits of your life skills programming.

I noticed that you said the participants teach their inmates about what they have learned - what exactly do they teach them? I see the opportunity for two kinds of leadership: soccer skills coaching to less skilled players and life skills (training them as trainers once they go through the program). And these two areas can really be covered by making them leaders in the very same program. I would also suggest, if you do not already do so, to create a similar program outside of the prisons, which those who have gone through it on the inside can implement in the community. That might solve the issue of partnering solely with faith based organizations.

Finally, in terms of funding a sustainable business model: do you charge the prison system at all or require them to provide funding? It seems you are saving them a lot of money in the long run by ensuring that these prisoners do not return as inmates who again have to be sustained while in jail and that is ideal leverage for getting the government to fund it.

Once again, great model, thanks for sharing!

Hey Timothy,
Have you read the project entry from Ghana dealing with incarcerated youth? It is also posted on the competition - you should check it out and see if there is anything you can contribute/ learn from each others' experience working with similar target audiences.

I would also be interested in understand more about how your innovation works with beneficiaries from other religions - what opportunities are they offered or excluded from?

I really like the replicability of your model and would be curious to know what you see as the biggest challenges in terms of replication and how would you address the issue of maintaining the standards of your model while being flexible enough to address local issues?

Thanks so much,
Ziba

Hi, impressive proposal and video. I like how the sports piece is integrated into caring for the whole person including afterwards when they are released into the community. I was wondering though as a faith based initiative - "bringing the gospel through football" - what you see as the strengths and weaknesses of being faith based. It obviously makes many things possible like working with the churches afterwards , but do you have the experience that it makes other things more difficult or impossible - like working with Moslem inmates or others? Do you find that most of your athletes want a faith message or do they just accept it in exchange for being able to do a sport they love? Do people stay religious once they leave your programme?

I am always curious about faith based delivery of social projects - I would be very interested to hear what you see as strengths and weaknesses.

Thanks for your informative entry.
heather cameron