EFDN’s ‘Welcome through Football’ 2nd International meeting
Everton FC hosted project partners Apollon Limassol, FC Emmen, KAA Gent and SV Werder Bremen for the 2nd ‘ Welcome through Football ‘ seminar in Liverpool last week. EFDN’s Welcome through Football is a collaboration between the above 5 clubs and is co-funded by Erasmus+. The agenda for the second meeting was based around the kick off of the delivery phase of the programme, as well as the communication, financing, monitoring and evaluation. The human rights non-profit Amnesty International UK were also in attendance and presented their programme ‘Football Welcomes’.
One of the main objectives of the Welcome through Football programme is to develop a new methodology for use across Europe which will use football as a tool to promote the social integration of refugees. Over a 12 week period, the methodology is targeting refugees aged between the ages of 7 and 25, using the twice a week sessions as a safe space to aid the social integration of refugees in their host countries and to develop and prove the methodology.
During the 2nd seminar, representatives from the clubs explained the current state of their project preparations and then had the chance to discuss their challenges, problems and possible solutions. They also received input from Amnesty International UK who shared their own experiences with the ‘Football Welcomes’ project which sees them collaborate with English clubs, their communities and partners such as the English Football League (EFL) to support the integration of refugees in the UK.
The participating clubs also shared ideas for the communication of the events with one of the main goals being to create content for the clubs’ media channels that reaches and inspires future participants but also fans, sponsors and other stakeholders.
Assessment of the impact
Monitoring & evaluation (M&E) is a vital part of the programme delivery. The practitioners from all five clubs were given guidelines for implementing M&Eand they will collect quantitative and qualitative data to assess the programme impact. The data collection will include a survey, interviews and other data that will use a mixture of spreadsheets and specific software from EFDN partner Substance.
One of the major outputs from the programme will be the EFDN Welcome through Football Practitioners Guide, which will take be developed based not only the results of the programme but the methodology used along with various other valuable information. This guide will then be available to any club/organisation in Europe to help facilitate and inspire the implementation of refugee social inclusion projects by clubs, leagues and football associations/federations across Europe.
We look forward to the progression of the programme and the hospitality of FC Barcelona for the next meeting later this year in November 2019 (taking place around the same time as the 13th EFDN Conference). See the ‘Welcome through Football’ programme page for more details.
