Dreams+Teams is a global initiative of the British Council, working in conjunction with the Youth Sports Trust in the UK, which develops leadership skills in young people through the medium of sport.
The programme works on the cascade principle, with teachers and coaches trained as local tutors. The tutors train groups of young people between the ages of 14 and 19 in sports skills, media and publicity, budgeting, child protection, event organisation and evaluation; the young people go on to deliver sports festivals to primary school children and, as their skills and confidence increase, within their own schools and wider communities.
The groups of young leaders are linked, through their schools/clubs to schools in the UK for curriculum development and sharing of best practice.
For more information on Dreams+Teams, click here.
Sport Relief is an initiative of Comic Relief, set up to raise money for disadvantaged communities in the UK and internationally to combat child poverty, abuse and exploitation.
The Sport Relief Mile had traditionally been run in the UK but a partnership with the British Council and Youth Sport Trust’s Dreams + Teams programme made Sport Relief go global in 2006.
The Nigerian Sport relief Mile 2008 was organised in Lagos on 29 February 2008 by the Dreams+Teams young people and coordinated through the Young Leaders. These are young people who have been empowered through sport to be leaders, to value and promote cross-cultural learning and to be active within their communities.
The event was about giving people the chance to set themselves a personal challenge, to raise money and to have fun.
Over 1000 young people were involved in the fundraising setting targets for themselves and seeking support from their teachers, family and community to run the mile.
These young people ran the race like it has never been run before turning it into what looked like a carnival. The children were full on energy, clapping and chanting along to Nigerian tunes while some performed acrobatic flips and cartwheels while running the Mile. There was never a dull moment.
There was a charity race to kick off the event; this was a high profile race led by Sam Harvey, Director of Programmes British Council Nigeria. There were representatives from the Education Authorities, media, parents, British Council staff in Lagos and their contacts, principals, Vice principals and teachers from schools participating in Dreams + Teams around Lagos. This was an exciting 400meters dash with handsome prizes given out to the first three places.
This event will be aired on BBC1 on the night of 13th March 2008.
The British Council in Nigeria has sponsored the CATS Project for six years now – a programme which uses the country’s passion for football to engage young people between the ages of 10 and 18 in a range of IT, peer health education, vocational, leadership and, of course, soccer training. CATS (Community Action Through Sport) pre-dates Dreams+Teams and the later programme has drawn on the CATS experience to develop its practices and organisation. The young people of CATS have been able to support their peers within schools as Dreams+Teams has been rolled out in Nigeria and have achieved remarkable success.
For more information on Dreams+Teams in Nigeria Contact Simbo
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