INNOVATION & ENTREPRENEURSHIP : STAYING CURRENT AND VIABLE

Power of Sport Summit June 11, 2010

Awista Ayub – Author, Kabul Girls Soccer Club www.awistaayub.com

Presentation Overview

  Experience working in Afghanistan with women’s soccer

  Lessons learned from my years of experience in the field

  How I applied it to a similar in Morocco with women’s soccer

Limiting Factors

  Did not think through the follow-up  Access to resources – funding  Access to local mentors  Access to local governing body  Lack of understanding of the sport in the context of the

country’s sports history

Sport Exchange Model

  Widely used approach within sports and development programs;  U.S. Department of State  Various sport and development organizations either as

their sole program or in conjunction with other aspects of their program

Drive to Promote a Participatory Approach

  Taking on a horizontal hierarchy approach   Can lead to having a longer term impact on the

individual and the community   Attempts to seek out knowledge from the community,

and then utilize that knowledge in planning sport related programs

Community Development

  “Successful community leadership development is a process whereby committed individuals work with others in their community to achieve positive social change that builds assets across the capitals.” (Emery, Fernandez, Gutierrez-Montes, & Flora, 2007 p. 69).

Getting it right

  Set up the participants for success rather than failure   Identified the limiting factors, and need to act on

addressing these issues

  Motivate the participants into action   Connect sport to community development

 Expand the impact beyond the few participants

  View the participants as implementers rather than simply the program beneficiaries

Project Based Sport Exchange Case Study   Conducted in coordination with the Morrocan NGO

AMSD  Nike funded Women Win grant, sponsored four

Moroccan female soccer players to the States (June 2008)

 Modeled after the Ashoka Youth Venture program   Program evaluation conducted in April 2009 with

the guidance of the University of Delaware  Dr. Matthew Robinson, Dr. Marian Palley, Professor Eric

Jacobson

Limiting Factors Addressed

  On the field soccer training   Project development, management, budgeting and

implementation guidance   Local mentorship support   Funding support ($250/participant) for the

development of the local in-country project thus helping to provide a foundation for the players to make a community contribution

Project Implemented

Recommendations

  Provide project management and training to program participants

  Provide seed-funding   Provide mentorship support   Conduct proper follow-up program evaluations as a

way to determine the effectiveness of the program and to add greater discourse to the field of international sports and development