Michezo Youth Initiative ..... "Let's play for life!" ..... Youth and community development program, Thika, Kenya

Following is a brief outline of the initial Michezo Youth Initiative program.

Start small:

Start small in both football and community programs. This will allow us to begin program with minimal cost and allow for unavoidable early errors to be learnt from with minimal long term impact.
Initial program launch in one area only. Teams/players are free (and will be encouraged) to travel from other areas if they choose. Over time their consistent involvement and requests will point to areas of expansion. A suitable venue has been identified on the outskirts of the initially targeted area (Kiandutu slum area) that will allow teams from outside the immediate area easy access to the program.

Location:

Due to the source of over 90% of street children being from the Kiandutu area, this must be the focal point of the program in order to justify the time, personnel and possible donor support being utilised.
There are a high number of community and youth groups already existing within the Kiandutu area ready to be involved in a youth program such as this.
Support for a playing location has been offered by Garissa Road Primary School, which is in the perfect location on the outskirts of Kiandutu, offering access both for volunteers & players within the area as well as those from other areas of Thika.

Initial focus on young:

Start with under 14s, 12s and 10s. Perhaps allow for under 16s depending on level of interest shown by this age group. This will avoid clashing with older teams playing in current political tournaments, which will carry through to early 2007, and also allow us to focus initially on those children at their most influential ages.

Develop life skills education program:

Identify specific life skills education focus required.
Identified youth volunteers to develop an activities based life skills education program to be delivered before each game. MYSA have offered to work with volunteers on development of this program.

Bring initial youth volunteers on board:

Youth CBO representative volunteers to be trained on delivery of developed program, to coach players, and referee games.
Within first 6-12 months have identified core youth volunteers to manage program in the longer term.

Program start:

Start with game "days" (ie. mini-tournaments), delivered once a month in the Kiandutu area. By starting with game days rather than a fully-fledged league for the first few months it allows word of mouth to spread information about the program and new teams/players to come on board.
Also allows both youth volunteers and program instigators to "cut their teeth" on the program and make initial mistakes and improve program as it grows without causing major long term issues.
By launching in this format we also serve two other important goals:
1. Have a more immediate high profile that might be more attractive to potential sponsors. From day one, we are an "event" happening within the densely populated area of Kiandutu, which will promote both the program and anyone associated with the program.
2. Deliver our life skills education program to the highest number of children sooner.
Game day will consist of initial registration of players/teams, organisation of tournament fixtures for the day, delivery of life skills activities by youth volunteers before each game, and playing of games.

Program/league development:

Ongoing review and youth forums to determine when we:
1. Start similar programs in other Thika district areas.
2. Move onto a more formal and structured league format with teams involved in initial program.
Current plan to run "game days" for a period of at least 6 months to allow time to develop life skills education program, involve and train additional youth volunteers, and develop local community relationships sufficiently.
Game days will eventually be replaced with a league format similar to that run by MYSA (www.mysakenya.org). This should happen within 6-12 months when we have teams that have shown they are reliable, and a core of youth volunteers who can manage and run the league.

Participant incentives:

Best team(s) invited to play in MYSA finals.
Best player(s) invited to a training camp hosted by Thika United.
Ongoing coaching and referee training opportunities offered by Thika United.
Other non-football training and/or internship experiences opportunities to be developed in conjunction with local supporters and the community.