The Dreams + Teams International Young Leader training process addresses three main areas.
1. Leadership and personal development
Young people need recognition. They need to be stretched and challenged. Dreams + Teams provides structured leadership opportunities to meet these needs.
Young Leaders are trained to lead other people
They take diverse needs of the group into account.
They consider the impact that their behaviour has on others
As they progress, they learn how to train other Young Leaders.
2. Citizenship
Communities need active young citizens and positive young role models. Young people need opportunities to use their energy to help their communities.
Through Dreams + Teams, young people learn about citizenship through the practical experience of dealing with real issues as they organise a sport festival. Young Leaders resolve issues, such as:
Should disabled people be part of the festival and if yes, how?
Do the rules of the games need to be changed to permit this?
Should points be awarded for goals scored only, or should other factors (e.g. fair play) be taken into account when awarding points, and how?
2. Cross-cultural understanding
Now, more than ever, we all need to understand and respect each other's cultures. The best way of understanding other people is to work together with them on a shared project. Dreams + Teams gives young people this opportunity.
Young Leaders are linked with their Dreams + Teams counterparts in other countries.
They are required to bring an international dimension into the festivals they organise.
For example, teams in the festival might take on the identity of another country, and study that country in the run-up to the festival.
Dreams + Teams also works at another level:
it brings together sports and education professionals
it facilitates international networking and knowledge sharing among government and non-government agencies who want to use sport to help young people develop.
In Trinidad and Tobago a partnership has been established between St Thomas More RC School in Haringey, North London and Mucurapo Senior Comprehensive School in Port of Spain, Trinidad. Initial training of the first group of Local Tutors and Young Leaders in the Caribbean was done in March this year, culminating in an exciting Youth Sport Festival at the Woodbrook Sport Facility. Five primary schools from the area were invited to participate in a Sport Festival organized fully by the 23 Young Leaders from Mucurapo Senior Comprehensive School with just 4 days! Greetings were brought from the British High Commissioner, Director for Venezuela and the Caribbean and the Ministry of Education.
GLOBAL SPORTS FESTIVAL
On and around 17 October 2003, over 300 Young Leaders around the world organised the very first Dreams + Teams Global Sport Festival. Sports events were run involving some 1,000 participants worldwide.
The festivals were the culmination of a month of contact between Young Leaders in the UK and their partners in other countries. Making contact via e-mail and video conferencing these Young Leaders exchanged ideas on how to organise their sport day and how to make it inclusive. They swapped ideas for songs, dances and food that would feature at their festival, and after the event they will be sharing experiences of the day itself.
Young Leaders have recorded their sports days in pictures and in writing and these records will be posted on this website, as well as some of their festival plans and ideas. This is so that Young Leaders in other countries can make use of good ideas and feel part of a network of Dreams + Teams Young Leaders around the world.
This took place again on June 23rd 2004 on a global scale and with much success.
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