A project to promote language, movement and personality development for children and young people through football in Switzerland.

Exercise, sport and play are elementary components of a children’s development and have the potential to support children and young people in their holistic development and to promote curiosity, empathy, social interaction, learning, joy and much more. At the same time, the “key competence of language” is a prerequisite for individual participation in education, work and wider social life. Both language development and physical activity behavior in Switzerland are characterized by strong inequalities, with children and young people from socio-economically challenged backgrounds are at a disadvantage. These inequalities often lead to deficits in school performance, physical and mental well-being, and personal development. The primary school age sets the tone; a habitus established at this age is just as important is just as crucial for later sporting activity as sufficient language skills for the subsequent educational transition and later educational success.

Integrative power of football

In order to meet these challenges, the project “Football for Life” project aims to support children and young people from challenging socio-economic backgrounds through the integrative power of football. “Football for Life” is based on the tried-and-tested “Football meets Culture” program from LitCam gGmbh, which has been running in Germany since 2007 and is now established at around 30 locations. The project’s approach combines weekly sport and play-based language development lessons with regular football trainings, which are offered at the participating primary schools for children aged 8-13 (grades 3-6). In addition to the weekly sessions, occasional cultural activities are organised to open up new perspectives for the participating children. In the “first half-time”, the children’s language and learning skills are developed through movement-orientated learning sequences, which are carried out by trainee teachers from the Bern Institute of Teacher Education. In the “second half”, the football training, which is led by qualified coaches, focuses on the further development of motor skills, football-specific techniques and the teaching of values such as fairness, team spirit and self-efficacy. While football is used as a motivational tool in all project activities, the development of personal and social skills is at the heart of all project activities. Using SA4D’s well-established and award-winning approach to developing life skills through sport and play, children will be encouraged to develop their own personal and social skills in a safe environment.

Language, movement and personality development

Using playful and activity-orientated methods, the project seeks to increase the joy of speaking and to introduce the children to movement and strengthen their existing joy of movement. The project activities are intended not only to support the children’s language and motor skills, but also strengthen their personal development. The project thereby aims to contribute to the reduction of inequalities in education and physical activity and to support the participating children in their development into self-confident, healthy members of an inclusive society.