Description
SARI (Sport Against Racism Ireland) is a social enterprise, not for profit NGO that “supports cultural integration, social inclusion and cohesion in the Irish Republic, Northern Ireland and abroad by using sport as a medium to combat racism, sectarianism, xenophobia, homophobia and all other forms of discrimination in a Human Rights framework”. Its projects use the medium of sport for cultural integration and social inclusion of young people of migrant backgrounds. The project Soccernites is a free-of-charge youth football and education development programme including twice weekly training and coaching for boys and girls aged 14-18. Hijabs and Hat-tricks started in early 2014 to give young Muslim women and girls the opportunity to play football. Diverse City FC is another project open to all girls and young women aged 15+. The Football Training programmes include the Football for Employability Programme and the President’s Gaisce Award participation. The main goal is to promote the human development of boys and girls from migrant backgrounds, through educational programmes in a human rights framework. The projects are funded by the UEFA Foundation for Children and were once funded by Beyond Sport, Sony Mobile Young Leader programme.
- Access to compulsory education
- Access to health care
- Children complete compulsory education
- Children maintain their cultural identity while adopting new cultural values and intercultural competences
- Children remain in (formal) education beyond compulsory levels / Access to (formal) non-compulsory education
- Children's academic skills
- Children's competence in host language
- Children's legal status
- Children's life satisfaction / happiness
- Children's sense of belonging
- Friends and peers (bridges)
- Friends and peers (support)
- Institutions
- Teachers
- Types & levels of (formal) non-compulsory education attended
Evaluation ex post
2020 monitoring and evaluation is currently in progress.
Projects’ deliverables
Resources are available at the project site.
Reproducibility
The SARI website includes a resource section that has the potential to inform potential engagements that are possible in using sport as a vehicle for integration and cross cultural/religious understanding. A focused selection of publications, include academic critiques and personal narratives. Together, they provide a resource whereby initiatives can be developed, informed and embedded in existing knowledge and experiences. Not a communication toolkit, as such, their potential to inform the development of contextually sensitive and knowledge-based initiatives is immense.
Motivation for the submission
This project brings together migrant integration, anti-racist awareness and opportunities for young girls in sport. It is unique in its aims to broaden out perspectives and opportunities in sport. Its enabling and youth-led environment offer immense opportunities for skill acquisition and confidence building for an otherwise, potentially particularly marginalised group of girls.
Additional comments
Many students attend ETB (Education Training Board) courses provided by CDETB (City of Dublin Education and Training Board) who liaise with SARI on the development of the trainees. Some of them attend PLC (Post Leaving Certificate) courses and progress to University level. We have a number of young women from Brazil on our Diverse City team. The goal is to build resilience of the trainees and facilitate them to join sports clubs, gain coaching badges and become active citizens. In October 2015 Hijabs and Hat-tricks won the Best New Project Award at the prestigious Beyond Sport Awards in London.
