About
The Football Works project aims to provide sporting opportunities within prison and use the social value of sports, in particular football, to prepare current inmates with educational workshops and provide them for the time after release so they can be successfully reintegrated into the society and the labour market. This will be done by bringing together various football clubs and prisons across Europe. Therefore, the purpose of Football Works is about trying to reduce the high reoffending rates across Europe by providing employment and volunteering opportunities for released inmates. The consortium believes that sport is the perfect tool for engaging hard to reach groups and reintroduce them to education and prepare for the release.
The consortium is made up of 8 organisations across the Netherlands, Serbia, Norway, Ireland, England and Germany: Dienst Justitiele Inrichtingen (DJI); the European Football for Development Network; The Serbian Ministry of Justice, in particular KPZ Sremska Mitrovica; Stiftelsen Valerenga Fotball Samfunn (VIF); Sitchting FC Emmen Naoberschap (FC Emmen); Bohemian Football Club CLG An Cummann Peile Boithemeimeach Cuideachta Faoitheorainin Rathaiochta (Bohemian FC), Saints Foundation; and Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH (Bayer04).
Therefore, the main project objectives are:
- To improve the physical activity participation within prisons due to the health-related benefits
- To use the power of football and remove barriers linked to education and training systems for inmates in order to help them with a successful reintegration into the EU labour market
Football Works Methodology
In order to achieve above mentioned project objectives, the project utilizes a unique methodology, that, if proven successful, can be replicated across Europe. The Football Works Methodology presents a three-step path towards preparing inmates across Europe for their reintegration after release to the labour market through a collaborative effort of health-enhancing and employability projects. This methodology will be tested and delivered throughout Europe in order to validate its success and to establish a truly European methodology.
Step1: Empowering Inmates through Sport and Football inside prisons
Prisoners are offered a plethora of sporting, in particular football, opportunities. These opportunities are centred on the 11 core values of Football Works which include:
- Respect
- Role Model
- Pro-Active
- Professionalism
- Teamwork
- Initiative
- Fun
- Ambitious
- Creative
- Trust
- Discipline
The values will be a central part to the training sessions as they foster personal and professional growth, which is important for the reintegration into society. Moreover, the core values will continue to play an integral part throughout the other steps of the project as well.
Step 2: Building essential hard and soft skills and coaching accreditations
Various educational and professional workshops around hard and soft skills will be available for participants. This includes workshops on employability, digital training, writing CVs and much more since it will help participants post-release. Moreover, in the various workshops, participants can learn to apply their recently acquired core values and employability enhancing skills in a familiar football-oriented environment within prison. The learnt skills are easily transferable to other areas of life, meaning that they greatly help with the personal and professional development of participants.
Step 3: Internships and Volunteering
In this final step, participants can further enhance the learned skills from Step 1 and 2 through internship, volunteer and paid job opportunities at local and professional football clubs as well as other businesses. This will be the final preparation for participants before release and allows each to apply and fine-tune skills in a professional setting meaning guaranteeing a successful transition to the European Labour market.
While not all participants will always move to the next step, everyone can learn important skills needed to have success in the future. Moreover, throughout the project, staff members can critically reflect on the projects activities in order to make suitable changes to better target the needs of prisoners.