Capacity building through Sport

Sport is a fantastic and unique tool in community development and capacity building. People love it so it is a great way to get a crowd, when you have a crowd you can deliver a message. The other great thing is that in Below is something I wrote very early in the piece.

The goals of the Future in Youth program are to:

• increase the health and wellbeing of youth in the Baucau community;
• engage currently disengaged youth in Baucau;
• generate hope for a better tomorrow for the participating children and the community as a whole;
• help develop leadership and life skills such as team work, fairness and the importance of rules; and
• develop a sporting infrastructure in Baucua of community clubs that continues to provide an ongoing opportunity for youth to be engaged in sport (a longer term goal).

Community Engagement

Dr Paul Callery, School of Exercise Science comments

The main focus was on improving the coaching capacity of the volunteer coaches and making sure the kids have fun so they keep coming back.

Months of planning in Australia and much of what we had set out to do had to be modified or eliminated completely.

This caused much difficulty adapting to initially but now the ACU team is able to realize that we must learn to operate, co-operate and think like the Timorese and plan accordingly.

I am most pleased with the way all members of the group have learnt to understand the differences in personalities and the way we organize the way we do things.

Our ACU students were magnificent in the support they offered the coaches and apart from a few initial hiccups the night was great success.  The kids loved their red hats and also took home their healthy diet sheets.

We run a games night for Newtown tonight and after that go to run an hour coaching session at Fatemaka the boys trade school.

Students comments

Samantha Lawrence: "My time over there really made me realise there are so many things we take for granted. I found it quite difficult the first week but I also learnt a lot about myself and hope I gave these kids back the best of myself in return."

Research

Evaluation of the effectiveness of the program will be undertaken at the conclusion of the program and, in consultation with the Salesian community in Baucau and the Baucau District Football Federation, a further evaluation of the ongoing nature of sporting opportunities will be monitored over 12 months.