Youth Football Club Rurka Kalan (YFC), a community based grassroots organization working for the development of underprivileged children through the medium of football and education in Punjab, organized a coaching workshop for the coaches and youth mentors of Punjab in association with Coaches Across Continents (CAC) – a US based organization and a global leader in the sport for social impact movement.
Earl Strassberger, Sophie Legros and William Hawkey are representing Coaches Across Continents and they have selected Gurpratap Singh from Delhi through their Community Impact Programme to give him an opportunity to share his learnings and experience with the YFC coaches and staff members.
YFC joined hands with CAC for three years to implement the ‘Hat-trick’ initiative that focuses on local social issues such as: Female empowerment, including gender equity; conflict resolution including social inclusion; health and wellness including HIV behaviour change; and other life skills.
The joint initiative would be implemented in the villages of the District of Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Amristar. It will focus on 3,000 underprivileged children through its structured curriculum which would be implemented by the coaches and youth mentors of YFC.
The camp was organized at Youth and Sports Complex at Rurka Kalan village from October 16 till October 22. The seven-day programme had 80 participants from various villages across Punjab. These participants were between the ages of 16-40.
The felicitators showed the coaches and community leaders how to teach students important life lessons with the help of football. Through this camp, participants were encouraged to learn sports for development skills and are taught how sports can be used for creating social impact in our society.
With the help from CAC, YFC will now prepare a 24-week coaching curriculum for the development of football in Punjab and increasing the impact of the game in tackling the developmental issues that hinder the growth of deprived villages and the children.