Football Used as a Tool to edUcate childRen on sustainablE behaviours (FUTURE) is an EU project coordinated by the Latvian Football Federation and financed under the pilot call „Sport, People and Planet” in 2023. The project aims to use football as a social tool to foster a culture of environmental sustainability among children aged 6-11 years, increasing their awareness and social norms but also fostering an active approach to sustainability.
Objectives:
- To spread the culture of environmental sustainability through the use of football among young generations
- To provide a monitoring tool to understand the environmental impact of kids’ football clubs
- To develop free courses to support football coaches and sport educators in integrating environmental education in their activities
- To provide a methodology to work on environmental sustainability awareness through football
Description:
FUTURE is a project developed by different football federations (Latvia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Lithuanian Grassroots) and other sport and educational providing institutions, to educate young generations (namely kids aged 6-11) in environmental sustainability through football.
This is done in different ways:
- Creating a monitoring tool for environmental impact of football clubs doing activities with kids
- Designing an educational methodology to teach kids environmental respect and awareness through football activities
- Creating online and face-to-face training for coaches and sport educators on environmental sustainability
- Developing an awareness campaigns to involve both the kids and the communities engaging testimonials and different actors to highlight the role of sport in sparkling environmental conscience
The project is financed by the EU Pilot Actions fund „Sport, People and Planet” and it’s going on throughout 2024 and 2025.
Impact and Results:
The action produced many outputs: a manual with the methodology for environmental awareness for kids utilizing creative, dynamic football workshops and other methods to teach environmental sustainability; a set of online training modules for coaches and sport educators; a campaign to engage the communities; a monitoring tool to understand the impact on the environment of training and matches of sport clubs.
It’s involving a big number of interested people, clubs and other entities (such as schools and NGOs) in cooperating for environmental sustainability education throughout its implementation.
Thanks to the involvement of the football federations and the endorsement of UEFA, it’s clear that the methodology and the outputs can have a long lasting effect and engage many clubs and people along the way, also after the duration of the project.
Conclusions and Suggestions for Youth Workers:
The developed methodology can be applied, with some adaptations, also for young people and youth trainers and educators.
Some of the ideas are also applicable to youth projects at EU and/or local level. It is important to notice how many sport federations have interest in involving their associates (including young people playing in different sport clubs) in different actions also beyond sport.
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