Football History for Inclusion. Innovative collaborations of school education and youth through the prism of local football history for social inclusion and diversity. Erasmus Project

Project Title

Football History for Inclusion. Innovative collaborations of school education and youth through the prism of local football history for social inclusion and diversity.

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Youth (Participation, Youth Work, Youth Policy) ; Inclusion – equity; Cultural heritage/European Year of Cultural Heritage

Project Summary

The Football History for Inclusion project was initiated to address the needs of those educators who witness, in their day-to-day, instances of exclusion and who wish to help their pupils engage in meaningful conversations about inclusion and develop social and civic competences. In particular, the project set out to enable these educators to use football history, which is widely beloved and known by the general public, as a door opener to grab pupils’ attention and make complex concepts easier to grasp.

The project consortium was composed of: (1) EuroClio (NL), an International NGO which has 30 years of experience in project leadership and management, as well as a large network that includes relevant stakeholder and members of the target group of the project; (2) the Anne Frank House (NL), an internationally renowned foundation who has great experience in developing engaging educational materials that help countering antisemitism among youth; (3) Eintracht Frankfurt Museum (DE), a museum that uses local football memorabilia, tangible, and intangible heritage to develop workshops for schools to discuss concepts such as antisemitism, the holocaust, and diverse and multicultural societies; (4) Evenzo Consultancy (NL), a consultancy with relevant expertise in the field of communication and community engagement, which throughout the project held the role of curating and maintaining a high-quality and multi-tiered communication campaign; (5) Fare Network (UK), an organisation experienced in the generation and launch of initiatives aimed at the prevention of racism and racist behaviors in connection to football; (6) the Romanian Football Federation, which brought to the table their expertise in the development of successful campaigns to engage national minorities, promoting their inclusion. Additionally, a core team of 30 volunteer educators was formed to create 30 approaches for non-formal education settings and 30 exemplar learning activities.

During the reporting period there have been 8 transnational partner meetings. The first meeting served as an introduction to the project, and helped partners develop a common vision on all Intellectual Outputs, including the roles and responsibilities and the time path, and a common understanding of the specific terms and language used in the project. The purpose of the second through fifth meetings was to prepare future joint sessions and to provide feedback to the draft materials developed by team members. The sixth and seventh partner meetings focused on adapting the project design to account for the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic. The eighth and final meeting was dedicated to evaluating the project, discussing in particular what lessons partners could learn for future improvement of their (joint) endeavours.

There also have been 5 short term joint staff trainings: The Netherlands in February 2019; Romania in May 2019; Germany in November 2019; The Netherlands in February 2020; Online in September 2020. The last meeting was not originally envisioned in the project plan, but was added and held online to provide support to members prior to the beginning of the new scholastic year, especially in relation to the planning of online activities due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Additional one-on-one meetings between partners and team members were held throughout the project.

Finally, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, which hit the project at the moment when national trainings were set to begin, several partners were able to organise dedicated “Football Makes History” trainings. Three of these were design to share project outputs and experiences with practising teachers and took place online in English, German, and Dutch in April-June 2020, while two took place in the fall of 2021 and were dedicated to discussing the role of football history as a tool to promote inclusion with football associations and policy makers. These took place in person, in The Netherlands and Romania.

The project produced a variety of intellectual outputs: a Needs Assessment; a Toolkit consisting of 30 educational approaches to use football in non-formal education; 24 Lesson Plans, 6 Source Collections, and 1 teaching strategy design to use football in the (history) classroom; Policy Recommendations on the way forward; and an ambitious Public Awareness Campaign, including social media presence, the creation of engaging video content, and the launch of the website footballmakeshistory.eu.

Project Website

https://footballmakeshistory.eu/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 379200,16 Eur

Project Coordinator

EUROCLIO-DE EUROPESE VERENIGING VOOR GESCHIEDENISONDERWIJSGEVENDEN & Country: NL

Project Partners

• FEDERATIA ROMANA DE FOTBAL
• Evenzo Consultancy
• FERENCVAROSI TORNA CLUB
• ANNE FRANK STICHTING
• FARE NETWORK LTD
• Big Ideas Company Ltd
• Eintracht Frankfurt Museum