A Ganar/Vencer is a workforce development program for at-risk youth between the ages of 16-24 that is currently active in Brazil, Ecuador and Uruguay. Its innovative approach uses soccer and other sports as a teaching and motivational tool for youth, as well as an instrument to gain private and public sector support.
The goal of A Ganar/Vencer, which is a project of Partners of the Americas, is to develop the youth workforce into an asset for economic growth. The project focuses on developing sustainable partnerships, in the form of private sector sponsorships of key activities that build youth employability. The program reaches at-risk youth through a soccer-based curriculum that teaches transferable life skills, such as leadership and teamwork, and offers linkages to local private-sector businesses for employment or education continuation opportunities.
A Ganar/Vencer’s mission is to create a workforce development model using sports (principally soccer) as a way to teach, train and motivate marginalized youth and to motivate private and public sector investment in youth. This project works towards three main objectives:
- to build the partnership model, developing local offices with the capacity to involve all key stakeholders and to manage project activities;
- to develop a sports-based curriculum for teaching employability skills to youth;
- and to provide comprehensive market-driven employment training for at-risk youth, including employability skills.
Paul Teeple
pteeple@partners.net
