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| A Ganar Alliance participants
in Ecuador playing soccer |
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Teaching vital life
and job skills to at-risk youth who are highly motivated
and enjoy sports is the ultimate goal of the A Ganar
Alliance. Led by the Partners of the Americas, the
organization, which focuses its efforts in Latin America
and the Caribbean, utilizes soccer and other team
sports to help youth, ages 16-24, find jobs, learn
entrepreneurial skills, or re-enter the formal education
system.
In St. Kitts, the
ambitious program is scheduled to be implemented over
the next six weeks. A Facilitators Certification Workshop
was held on the 16th and 17th March at Warner Park.
Classroom activities took place in the Dining Room
and sports activities on the adjoining football field.
Udora Farrell, A Ganar
Program Coordinator/Monitor for St Kitts-Nevis, is
leading the training program. Brooke Rosenbauer and
Dr. Santiago Andrade of Partners of the Americas in
Washington, D.C. and Ecuador, respectively, are assisting.
"We try to get
people to come out of their shells," said Farrell,
going on to describe some of the techniques used to
orient participants and make them feel comfortable
in a group setting.
She mentioned a humorous
anecdote in which attendees were given what was described
as a 'helium stick' and watched as the sticks rose
in the air while being held in different persons'
hands. However, the sticks did not contain any helium,
and the exercise was a striking illustration of how
the power of suggestion can govern perceptions.
Farrell said that
a chief goal of the program was to change the thought
processes of their young participants to always dwell
on the positive.
"What you think
is what you achieve," she opined.
Rosenbauer noted that
due to the exercises completed on the first day of
training, attendees were much more focused the next
day.
"We help them
to isolate their thoughts and focus on what is happening
today," she said.
For his part, Dr.
Andrade was very impressed with the beauty of St.
Kitts and Nevis, and with the positive attitude and
enthusiasm shown by the young people.
"It is important
to take advantage of potential," he said. "The
youth are our future."
The organization in
St. Kitts and Nevis aims to train a total of 140 youths
in the following six weeks, and 225 by September of
2011. Aside from St. Kitts, the newest program additions
are located in Argentina, Colombia, Haiti, and Mexico.
Four local organizations
were selected to participate in the A Ganar activities:
the St. Kitts-Nevis Football Association, Caribbean
Healthy Life Styles, Hope Nevis and the Community
Achievers Project (CAP). The latter is the only organization
involved in agriculture.
Victoria Baucom, the
founder of CAP, was very pleased to be part of the
proceedings. CAP is currently partnering with Basseterre
High School, and two of the school's teachers are
participating in the project, Randolph Franklin and
Wilbert Blackett, in addition to Sydney Berkeley and
Maaisha Liburd - all acting as facilitators.
Baucom was especially
pleased that some former CAP participants, who were
with the program back in 2004, will be brought into
the A Ganar program. She noted that one of the young
men had been shot four times in the intervening years,
and some have spent time in jail, but that all were
very enthusiastic about being given a new opportunity
to turn their lives around.
A Ganar is the only
known program that uses a focused, sport-based, employability
skills curriculum for youth workforce development
that works directly with the private sector to develop
the curriculum. Instead of forming teams for competitions,
The curriculum provides
training and support through four distinct and integrated
phases that impart the skills and practical experience
youth need to successfully compete for jobs.
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