BIG HEARTS first Scottish Club to launch Welcome through Football

BIG HEARTS FIRST SCOTTISH CLUB TO LAUNCH WELCOME THROUGH FOOTBALL

Our member Big Hearts has started its 12 weeks ‘Welcome Through Football‘ programme to assist in the social inclusion of refugees, migrants & asylum seekers aged 7 to 25. Big Hearts is the first Scottish club that is part of the EFDN initiative funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union. For the first session, our member welcomed 20 young people recently settled in Edinburgh.

A FANTASTIC START

Today's the day! 🙌 ⚽ Excited to be back to the Stadium with #WelcomeThroughFootball: a new social inclusion project for young people recently settled in Edinburgh.#AyeWelcomeRefugees @JamTarts @EFDN_tweets @EUErasmusPlus pic.twitter.com/B7FMA3eRwX
— Big Hearts (@bighearts) June 16, 2021

Fantastic first evening back to the Stadium with 20 young people recently settled in Edinburgh! ⚽️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 #WelcomeThroughFootball #AyeWelcomeRefugees @EUErasmusPlus @EFDN_tweets pic.twitter.com/5fgkE5mJTS
— Big Hearts (@bighearts) June 17, 2021

ABOUT THE PROGRAMME

Big Hearts is teaming up with the European Football Development Network to assist in the development of a long-lasting, sustainable methodology based on three phases:

Socialisation to sports: providing different football offerings in relation to their specific requirements, such as language skills or the possibility of trauma.
Socialisation in sports: working on team structure, giving more responsibility to the participants and offering additional opportunities out with the sports training sessions.
Socialisation through sports: Focusing on the skills the participants learn from taking part in the available offers so that they qualify for further education in and outside of sports.

As part of ‘Welcome Through Football’ Big Hearts is sharing best practice with 8 other members of the network running the project in their respective countries: AEK Athens (Greece), Everton in the Community (England), Newcastle United Foundation (England), Fundacao Benfica (Portugal), Werder Bremen (Germany), FC Emmen (Netherlands), Sheffield United Community Foundation (England) and KAA Gent (Belgium).

Along with developing effective methods in reaching out to refugee, migrants and asylums seekers communities, the project aims to develop a Practitioners Guide to be widely used by any interested organisations and sport clubs across Europe.