“Purposeful Play’ programs of Coaches Across Continents to deliver & working on UN-SDG’s targeting social issues such as girl protection & empowerment, child rights, health and wellness and social cohesion – Adam Burgess

Coaches Across Continents (CAC) is a global collaboration of communities, corporations, and foundations on 6 continents that use our unique Purposeful Play and Education Outside the Classroom programs to impact the UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

CAC empowers its partners to design, develop, and implement sustainable educational programs that address selected UNSDG’s. In the last 11 years, CAC has reached 25 million children and educated over 27,000 leaders from 229 implementing partners and 7086 member partners.  This has been achieved by enabling local NGO partners across 60 countries and 1005 communities to deliver the ‘Purposeful Play’ programs on the 16 UNSDG’s targeting social issues such as girl empowerment, child protection, child rights, health and wellness, and social cohesion.

CAC’s uniquely-designed Education Outside the Classroom and Purposeful Play programming has been shown to have a direct effect on:

1. Young people and children
2. Educators, young leaders, and coaches
3. Organizations like schools, NGO’s, sports clubs, corporations and governments
4. Communities Including parents, police and medical professionals

CAC only consults with partners and communities when they have reached out and expressed an interest in receiving support from CAC. This ensures partners are bought in to CAC’s model and are strategically involved at every stage of the process. This method of investing in educators, coaches and organizations means investing in real local leaders through which, we are empowering individuals to be positive contributors to their respective societies as well as to be strong agents of change and development for the youth of their communities.

We work with corporations, governments, foundations, and community-based organizations to Create Legacies based on the UN SDGs. We do this through four main programs:

1. Influence Legacy Program
CAC’s Influence team advise governments, foundations, NGOs, policy makers, high-impact donors, and key global influencers and their strategic philanthropic investments.

2. Innovate Legacy Program
Our ‘Innovate’ team Design, Develop and Implement CSR & Cause Marketing Initiatives, Employee Engagement, and Foundation Legacy Programs that provide year-round, sustainable social development programs to corporations and foundations.

3. Impact Legacy Program
Our ‘Impact’ team Design, Develop and Implement Purposeful Play and Education Outside the Classroom programs with governments, municipalities, schools, and community-based organizations to create legacies of sustainable change based on the UN-SDG’s.

4. Instruct Legacy Program
Our ‘Instruct’ team deliver in-country face to face education with community educators and coaches. They provide professional development using our Self-Directed Learning methodology and bespoke Purposeful Play curriculum.

We currently operate in partnership with local NGO’s and governments in 65 countries: Albania, Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Australia, Bangladesh, Barbados, Botswana, Brazil, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Chile, China, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, France, Georgia, Ghana, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Laos, Lebanon, Liberia, Malawi, Mexico, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palestine, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Sierra Leone, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor Leste, Uganda, UK, USA, Vietnam, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

Among these countries we have many strong locations where we work with Ministries of Education and Sport to embed CAC curriculum and methodology into informal teaching practices. Countries where we actively work with governments to do this include Armenia, China, Colombia, Georgia, Lebanon, Mexico, Nepal, Palestine, Peru, Tanzania, Zimbabwe. These partnerships focus on locally relevant curriculum, professional development of teachers especially teachers of Physical Education, and monitoring impact on students.

CAC’s Education Outside the Classroom (EOC) curriculum and programming addresses the issues highlighted by UN Sustainable Goal #4 for inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for everyone. In particular it addresses Goal #4 Targets 4.5 (eliminate gender disparities in education and ensure equal access to all levels of education and vocational training…) and 4.7 (ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development…). EOC supports traditional education by providing safe spaces for children and communities to discuss harmful traditional, religious, and cultural practices. Our intentionally designed EOC methodology and curriculum empower children to learn problem solving leadership skills and communities to design pathways towards social change. It is play-based and designed for an ever-changing world. Education Outside the Classroom empowers young people and communities to analyze their needs and implement strategies to choose their futures.

The partners, organizations and leaders all over the world who have committed to the CAC model of education and community development. The passion, belief and dedication they demonstrate to their community is incredibly inspiring. We work with organizations which have reduced teen pregnancy in their community and lowered crime re-offender rates for example. We have many Community Impact Coaches who have been sparked by CAC to start their own organizations, participate in global citizenship, and use their expertise to help thousands of others. Without these people CAC would not be effective.

Yes, in the past 10 years a large proportion of our funding has come from CSR budgets. With our global reach and ability to address a wide range of social topics we are a perfect fit for corporations to strategically partner and meet their specific visions. We engage company employees, enhance global brand reputation through marketing, and design effective evaluation systems for our corporate partners. We have delivered CSR initiatives addressing the UN SDG’s in 27 countries with corporations such as: Asian Football Confederation, Bloomberg, Chevrolet, CONCACAF, ESPN, Michael Johnson Young Leaders, Nike, Pathfinder International, Postobon, and Standard Chartered Bank.

These CSR funds do not support all of CAC’s initiatives. They allow us the flexibility to provide our partnership to many organizations all over the world who do not have the budget to be able to pay for our services. Therefore we are always looking for new ways to add value to corporate partners, investors, foundations and those wishing to meet their strategic community objectives. This will not only provide significant business benefits but also have real sustainable positive impact on the communities in which we work.

CAC has worked for 8 years with organizations and communities across India. This includes in Kolkata, Delhi, Patna, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Punjab, Coimbatore, Nagpur, Rajasthan, Mumbai, and Chennai. Partner organizations in India include Slum Soccer, Magic Bus, Naz Goal India, and YFC Rurka Kalan. During this time we have trained thousands of leaders and impacted hundreds of thousands of children. India is always one of the most dynamic and vibrant locations in which we work with coaches taking an active role in working out how play can transform the lives of young people.

We will be continuing to work in India in 2020 and into the future with powerful organizations and communities. Due to the on-going emergence of the country we are hopeful of sport and plays place in making a real sustainable impact on the challenges within the country. We believe that there are unique opportunities to utilize the increasing economic capabilities of the country to promote and encourage a society which works for all and want to be involved in supporting that. For example the Indian 2% CSR law is a positive step if the decision-makers and influencers can invest the money strategically and not just to tick boxes. CAC and our local partners in India want to be seen as a strong option for corporations to strategically do this in the next 5 years.