!Football United!

Football United (FUn)  had an exciting week last week with two major events which provided new support for both long term development and for the upcoming trip to South Africa for the Football for Hope Festival during FIFA’s World Cup 2010. The events are a milestone on our journey in promoting harmony and social justics through the magic global game of football.

Following more than a year of development negotiations, Football Australia has come on board  to support Football United with the launch of a new national partnership. The partnership begins with a donation of 20k to Football United’s trip to South Africa, with national development plans to commence in the second half of 2010.

“We are thrilled with this important new partnership,” FUn’s founder and director , Anne Bunde-Birouste, exclaimed. “It will provide the valuable recognition of FUn’s work and assist us to work with federations and clubs across the country to bring new opportunities to youth who to date are not able to join in the game they love.” Football

Strategy Manager Brad McCarroll added “ I think this is the first time globally a national federation has partnered with a football for social development organisation in this way”.

To honour the event, the FFA flew Anne and 4 of FUn’s “Hope” team to Queensland to meet the Socceroos and Mathilda’s and announce the good news.
The trip to South Africa was brought closer to reality with a second big boost from the NSW government.  NSW Premier Kristina Keneally visited a team training session at UNSW on Sunday, Feb 28 UNSW to announced a one-off grant of $20,000 to help the team get to the World Cup in June. The NSW government grant matches the FFA donation, and  takes us closer to the $150,000 needed to get to South Africa.

“The NSW government is already on board to support out ARC (Australian Research Council) grant, which is a three year project, “ noted Anne. “And they have provided small support grants to special projects such as Girls’ development. However support for the South African trip is hard to come by, and given that the entire team is from New South Wales we are thrilled to see the government recognize the importance of the opportunity and support the team.”

Eight team members, aged 15 to 18, will travel to South Africa with Anne, coach Abraham Ajak, and a youth leader yet to be selected. The team will  be chosen from among 16 who were selected as a training team through a participatory process held over the course of 2009. “As the final selection grows closer everyone is nervous, and I for one am a bit sad”, shared Anne.

”Sadly it is not possible for us to bring everyone along on this wonderful adventure. We hope that everyone supporting and participating in Football United will share a sense of pride in the team that does go, and happiness for all of us that we were able to have this honour and opportunity.”

The Fun team is getting closer to gaining the funds necessary to prepare and take the team to the Festival for Hope – please join us to get there by donating to this and the overall program.

Football Unites promotes harmony and social justice. We hope you can come together to support Football United.

To donate please click on the button below:

Or call 9385-2591.

The Football United program started out as an initiative of Anne Bunde-Birouste from the School of Public Health and Community Medicine at the University of New South Wales. It has grown to include numerous stakeholders, and runs programs throughout Sydney, particularly in the South West and Western regions including Blacktown and Liverpool.

Football United has formed partnerships with various community organisations including STARTTS, Migrant Resource Centres, the Police Communities and Youth Clubs (PCYC) and Football clubs throughout Sydney, as well as a strong base of committed volunteers.

Through these partnerships Football United delivers, weekly after-school soccer skills program, vacation training camps, coaching and referee training, family gala days, a mentoring program, and ‘Football in the Park’ every Saturday for refugees and local residents. This innovative program seeks to assist young refugees in their immigration and integration to Australia by providing a supporting and enjoyable environment through a soccer development program. While the focus is particularly on youth, the program will contain elements designed to contribute to building community cohesion among the different refugee communities, but will also explore potential for bridging across different Australian communities.

The program combines a number of approaches that have had documented success such as the use of sport to bring people from differing communities together. Fundamental as well is the use of proven effective social intervention strategies which associate factors of personal development with social development, such as empowerment and life-skills workshops, and youth mentorship programs.