Breaking Barriers promotes community cohesion, integration, citizenship and youth leadership in areas blighted by territorialism, low aspirations and high levels of poverty. Recognising that sport is a culturally familiar environment that cuts across race, ethnicity and territorial boundaries, and that coaches can act as role models and mentors to young people, Breaking Barriers trains community coaches and role models and places them in voluntary and work placement settings that benefit the wider community.
Training provided includes youth work and personal development programmes, accredited sports management and coaching qualifications, and relevant work placement and work based mentoring.
Breaking Barriers Gansbaii is funded by ABSA Spaces for Sport, and is delivered by the Football Foundation South Africa, Exercise Teachers Academy and trainers from Active Communities Network. It is delivered from a community sports facility managed by the Overstrand Muncipality.
The Breaking Barriers programme delivers a range of wider community activities via its trainees including:
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Community based sports and youth work projects to engage marginalised groups.
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Regular activities to build relationships with young people and provide mentors and role models in a sports / cultural setting.
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Opportunities to engage with the wider / other communities through events, competitions and training.
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Personal development and accreditation pathways and sustainable community initiatives.
Breaking Barriers Gansbaii draws on a tested model of delivery piloted in London. The Breaking Barriers projects in Brent, Lambeth and Southwark were the subject of a two year academic research programme (Read the Breaking Barriers research here) carried out by the Substance research group and published in 2010. From recommendations set out in this research, the project has since been replicated in across four London boroughs and in Birmingham / Coventry in the UK as well as in South Africa (initially in Cape Town and subsequently in Gansbaii).