Youth Leader Academy

Our Youth Leader Academy aims to train the young people’s self- efficacy, in order to prepare them for challenges in the future.

Starting position: Few opportunities for genuine participation and involvement

The way in which young people assess their abilities and accept their mistakes can have a heavy impact on their self-esteem and motivation. A further consequence is that one in six youths don’t believe that they can cope with difficult situations autonomously. Girls in particular are affected by these negative beliefs. This kind of self-image means that young people are standing in the way of the development of their own potential. They are inadequately prepared for the challenges of tomorrow’s changing world. At worst, this could mean a lack of competency, educational poverty and dropping out of training or education prematurely. This increases unem- ployment, system costs and the risk of a long-term withdrawal from society.

There is also a lack of low-threshold programmes where young people can train genuine participation, leadership skills and involvement. Young people are not given the opportunities at school to realise their own projects and thus also learn little about the tools and processes of engaging in civil society. Many players at Kicken ohne Grenzen come from households that are excluded from the traditional processes of democratic participation because of a lack of Austrian citizenship. They often feel left out of socio-political decisions and developments, which not only gives rise to a poor understanding of democracy but also the feeling of not being able to change anything in and beyond one’s own environment anyway. This threat of social isolation needs to be countered.

Objective: Using new challenges to train self-efficacy

The young participants in the one-week Youth Leader Academy develop a positive sense of togetherness and belonging. Workshops on communication, conflict management, anti- discrimination and gender equity increase their awareness of diversity in sport and everyday life, and teach specific social skills and critical thinking.

In subsequent project activities, they learn how to take up challenges, enhance their sense of self-assuredness and train their resilience, for example by working as a youth trainer or peer mentor in social skills training sessions, or by being involved in the organisation of tournaments. This leads above all to an increase in self-confidence and self-assurance.

Youth Leaders become self-effective actors in the reality of their everyday lives.

Our offer

In a one-week training camp, we teach soft skills such as autonomy, communication skills, conflict management or organisation talent. We also use individual focus days to work together on the topics of anti-discrimination and gender equity. These social skills not only help young people vis-à-vis future project activities in the sports world but also empower them to face challenges in everyday life. On the football pitch, Youth Leaders familiarise themselves with different concepts associated with sport for social change, for example the Life Goals Methods or football3.

In addition to the Youth Leadership Week, all young people are given the opportunity to take part in a first aid course.

After the training week, all Youth Leaders have the chance to participate as youth trainers in various Fußball+ activities or as peer mentors in the Life Goals project. Youth Leaders also help female football players organise the Girls Cup Vienna tournament, which is held several times a year. They also represent Kicken ohne Grenzen externally, at various events and invitations.