The Ball 2022/23

Fair Play Future

The Fair Play Future handbook and methodology will be used in schools on The Ball’s journey from London to Auckland. The aim is to listen to and to encourage people, young and old, to take climate action and to have fun doing so. Learnings from The Ball 2022/23’s journey, including the many voices of people on route, will be integrated back into further developing SOF’s climate action education methods and to addressing the needs of those most marganilised by climate change.

Youngsters in Germany taking part in the “Where do you play?” module of the “Fair Play Future” workshop. The workshop aims to inspire them to have fun taking climate action.

Download the Fair Play Future Handbook here

Fair Play University

SOF will work with and visit universities on route. SOF will offer seminars, run workshops, lectures and student project groups in the lead-up to and during The Ball’s journey in 2022 and 2023. One goal is to inspire young changemakers (especially local students) to get active in their local communities (by connecting to local climate initiatives). Another goal is to challenge the north/south research divide. SOF wants to work with universities to identify (and share) local perspectives on climate change and to uncover partners, solutions and academic research on route from London to Auckland.

Students learning about The Ball, in a SOF seminar at the University of Erfurt in Germany

We are currently planing to extend our offer to Universities along The Ball’s route. There is much “talk” about climate change. There is less “action”. SOF’s methods encourage action. Feel free to get in touch if you want more information about bringing The Ball into your University study programme and encouraging your students to take real action.

Fair Play Business

Spirit of Football Germany is currently developing modules for Fair Play Business. This is a sustainability workshop with the aim of co-developing and co-creating sustainability strategies and projects with companies. We want to encourage company employees to discover the benefits of doing business (and life) in a more climate friendly way in the future. We aim to run this workshop in several companies on route with The Ball in 2022 and 2023.

According to The Carbon Majors Database “CDP Carbon Majors Report” in 2017, just 100 companies have been the source of more than 70% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions since 1988. SOF’s approach to climate change includes working with employees of companies to help them identify and create strategies for sustainability in their organisations.

Module development is a team process at SoF. Our team is looking forward to launching Fair Play Business in 2021 and offering workshops on route in 2022 and 2023 with The Ball.

Spirit of Humanity

Since 2017, Spirit of Football has been running International Humanitarian Programmes under the title of “Spirit of Humanity”. These activities have focused on training of trainers with displaced people and host communities, plus humanitarian staff.

Female refugees trainers in the Azraq Refugee Camp in Jordan running a Fair Play session with children as part of their training of trainers programe in 2019.

The first activities took place in the Azraq Syrian Refugee Camp in Jordan where we partnered with CARE International, World Vision, the UNHCR and a host of other NGOS.

Trained female trainers working with young girls using SoF’s art method “Spirit of Whispers” in Jordan in 2018. Participants draw their ideas freely and collectively. They then discuss them in small groups before creating stories from them that are often then depicted on community murals.

The activities continued in urban areas in Jordan in cooperation with the Danish Refugee Council from 2019 to 2020. We have run projects with the German Corporation for International Development (GIZ) in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon as well as with SPARK in Turkey.

CARE International’s humanitarian workers participating in The Ball’s journey in Amman, Jordan in 2018.

Covid has put our activities on hold, however we are developing a refugee project with #LeaveNoOneBehind and several other partners on the Greek Island Lesbos. A project with Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh with CARE International is in the developmental stage. Click here to check out some of the voices of the people who have recieved out trainings and what the trainings meant ot them.

Jordanian humanitarians playing football for the first time in their lives at a SOF workshop in Amman, Jordan in 2020.

Spirit of Humanity uses the power of football, theatre and art to drive positive social change. We combine intercultural communication, fair play, creativity, teamwork and conflict resolution to empower NGO workers, refugees and locals in host communities with skills, a tool-kit for action and the motivation and confidence to deliver.

Playing theater during a TOT’s at the Azraq Refugee Camp in Jordan in 2019.

Refugee trainers and their participants (adults, children and youths) build-up resilience, learn positive coping mechanisms, and spread joy and hope in the most challenging circumstances. Our workshops connect people positively with each other (teambuilding) and encourage them to adapt the learnings as they spread them respectfully in their own work, at home and in their communities.

These trained trainers work for the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) and have taken our methods into their work with refugees in urban areas in East Amman.