Barça Foundation

Barça Foundation

The Barça Foundation was launched in 1994 to support the children and youth of the most vulnerable social groups through sport and education in values, with the objective of contributing to a more just and inclusive society.

The Barça Foundation frames its activities within the UN programmes Sport for Development and Sustainable Development Goals. The main action lines are educational access and support, violence prevention and conflict resolution in childhood and youth and fight against social exclusion and discrimination. Today, the Foundation reaches to more than 1,000,000 beneficiaries in more than 53 different countries from around the world.

The foundation has the following mission, vision and values:

Mission 

Supporting children and youths from the most vulnerable groups through sports and education, thereby contributing to a more egalitarian and inclusive society.

Vision 

Being the leading sports foundation in the world in terms of its social contribution to children and youths.

Values 

The shared values of FC Barcelona and the Barça Foundation are the following ones:

• Humility
• Effort
• Ambition
• Respect
• Teamwork

Our work:

The Barça Foundation have 3 lines of work: Prevention of violence, Social Inclusion and Education in vulnerable areas. 

Each strategic line is delivered through different programmes:

Prevention of violence:

• Bullying prevention program against harassment at schools
• Program for the prevention of youth violence in vulnerable and violent contexts

Social Inclusion:

• Pediatric emotional welfare program for children with serious illnesses
• Care and support program for refugee boys and girls and host communities
• Integration program for boys and girls at risk of social exclusion
• Inclusion program addressed at young people with disabilities

Education in vulnerable areas

• School programmes with UNICEF in Brazil, South Africa, China and Bangladesh

Methodologies:

The Barça Foundation has 3 different methodologies:

• FutbolNet: Educational and social instrument based on the use of sport to foster dialogue and social coexistence.
• Bullying Prevention: Educational instrument to prevent harassment among school children.
• Barça Experience: Actions and experiences to generate positive emotions among seriously ill children

The most iconic programmes of the Barça Foundation: 

For Refugees: Barça Foundation gives psychosocial support to young refugees in Greece, Italy, Lebanon and unaccompanied migrant minors in Barcelona. In association with the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, the foundation is implementing programmes with the FutbolNet methodology in different refugee camps, benefitting more than 24,000 youngsters of all ages.

 Against Bullying: The Barça Foundation is carrying a Bullying prevention program focused on the three key actors to solve this very important issue: Families, Schools and leisure time. The Barça Foundation has implemented a methodology in schools from Catalonia which have decreased the number of victims by 35,8%, and the number of aggressors by 24%. Regarding the Cyberbullying, the decrease is even better, 60,5% less victims and 56,5% less attackers. Furthermore, the Foundation offers educational workshops on bullying through sport. Prevention and awareness workshops on bullying, for primary school children, through recreational and participatory dynamics where sport is the motivational context for learning.

 Against Violence: The Barça Foundation uses sports to help improve social cohesion in conflictive environments. The main focus of the program is to use sport as an educational tool to help children, by fomenting integration and social cohesion, and by creating favorable conditions in order to prevent violence. We use the “FutbolNet” methodology to work with the youngsters of the most disadvantaged neighborhoods in big cities currently suffer from a high index of youth violence, which leads to division and inequality, and dimininshes childhood development. We are currently conducting this programme in places like Favela de Maré (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), Bogotá (Colombia) or Rosario (Argentina).

“The Barça Foundation has fulfilled the idea of being more than a club by helping, through its actions, to bring about real change among the most at-risk children by means of sport and its values. “