In addition to running our flagship projects in Zimbabwe, Zambia, and South Africa, Grassroot Soccer runs outreach projects with NGO partners that are interested in and have the capacity and funding to run effective sport for development projects. Grassroot Soccer helps organizations to start successful programs by providing technical assistance through training, curriculum and project design, and systems for monitoring and evaluation. Outreach projects are an important part of Grassroot Soccer because they allow us to share our educational resources and expertise in using soccer as an HIV/AIDS prevention tool without being stretched too thin in terms of our own human resources.
To maintain quality delivery, the GRS Expert Trainer who provided the initial training follows up with the partner’s trainers over time, providing site-visits and refresher courses which allow trainers to be re-certified. Over time, each Expert Trainer develops a pool of trainers and organizations for which he/she is responsible. In most cases, GRS is paid by the local organization for the training and curriculum services it provides to that partner.
GRS is always looking for other partners to implement our proven curriculum and evaluation tools. Please contact us if you want to learn more about becoming an implementing partner
Characteristics of Partnership
These partners recognize the value that GRS brings to the partnership, including:
- Field-tested curriculum and tools for monitoring and evaluation.
- High quality training and ongoing technical support for trainers.
- The use of soccer to increase the program’s effectiveness.
- Introduction to the network of groups using the GRS curriculum.
For its part, GRS looks for the following characteristics in its partners:
- Capacity to manage projects, including providing GRS with ongoing feedback.
- Long-term commitment to supporting their GRS program within their own organization.
- Financial stability.
- On the ground infrastructure and relationships with local government/schools.
- Trainers with educational experience.
- Potential to educate large numbers of adolescents over time (>5,000/year)
When possible, GRS attempts to work with a variety of partners from different backgrounds in each location. For example, in South Africa, GRS partners with a corporation (DeBeers), a professional soccer club (Kaiser Chiefs), a large foundation working in the community (Kellogg) and a local NGO (Ubuntu).
Ultimately, the Partnership Model allows GRS to reach a greater number of youth than using the Direct Model since GRS leverages local organization that are already in place and working with the target youth populations. GRS plans to expand its reach in the future primarily through the Partnership Model.
History of Implementing Partnerships
Grassroot Soccer began these collaborative projects in 2004 with the Sports For Life (SFL) program in Zambia and Ethiopia. Sports For Life is a project run by Health Communication Partnerships (HCP), a USAID funded initiative that involves such organizations as The Academy for Educational Development (AED) and Johns Hopkins University Center For Communication Partnerships (JHUCCP). Grassroot Soccer worked with Sports For Life to design a joint curriculum and help them launch a major project in Ethiopia that is now being delivered in more than 1,000 schools and has reached more than 1.4 million people. GRS has since then provided training and technical assistance for several successful SFL projects including recent initiatives in Lesotho and Namibia.
The success of SFL and interest in sport for development in the NGO community has also led to several additional collaborative projects for GRS in the past few years. We have worked with Mercy Corps to help start projects in Liberia and Sudan. We have worked with Lesotho Planned Parenthood to pilot a project in several districts in Lesotho. We have also worked with our NGO partners to design and develop new educational materials such as the Extra Time magazine. By sharing ideas and resources GRS has been able to reach out to tremendous numbers of people. We are always looking for like-minded partners that seek to integrate sports related HIV/AIDS prevention into their programs.
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