Homeless score a win on many levels
By Vanessa McQuarrie
An international street soccer competition is heading for Melbourne and Australia's homeless and disadvantaged, and their supporters, are set to be victorious on many levels.
Melbourne beat cities in Britain, Italy and Switzerland to win the right to host the Homeless World Cup in November 2008. The international tournament is part of a global push to encourage disadvantaged youth and adults into playing sport.
The Australian program, organised by The Big Issue magazine, began five years ago with the aim of connecting homeless people with their community, according to George Halkias, Street Socceroos Program Coordinator. The players stay fit and healthy, make friends, build rapport with team mates and develop self-esteem. The advantages and outcomes can't be ignored or under-estimated. "They are using it to change their life…"
The enormous demand for the weekly soccer training sessions in Fitzroy signalled the need to roll out the program to rural areas and interstate. The success of the Melbourne venture also lead to the development of wider programs such as players visiting schools to speak to students about homelessness. The visits teach students about how people come to experience homelessness and the disadvantages they face when trying to re-establish themselves. This program is driven by one particular volunteer, who initially arranged for a player to visit her son's school.
Halkias acknowledges that homelessness can scare people, and as such, the soccer training program itself is also designed to educate the general public about the issue. "We form a partnership with local community," he says. "It helps people understand what homelessness is … connects people with different backgrounds… and opens their eyes."
Anyone who wants to have a kick around with the Street Socceroos program is welcome to join in. This approach helps the organisers to engage members of the community, particularly young men, who otherwise would be unlikely to volunteer. "People who don't know the concept of volunteering turn up and don't even know they are volunteering!"
Leading up to the Homeless World Cup, the organisers hope to get many more volunteers involved in a number of capacities from mentoring and coaching to helping with catering, offering medical support or hosting players.
The 2008 tournament will be held in an especially-built street soccer arena in the heart of Melbourne at Federation Square. More than 50 national teams are expected to contest the Cup. Anyone over the age of 16 who has experienced homelessness in the last two years or is participating in a drug rehabilitation program is eligible to participate in the Homeless World Cup.
The event is organised by the International Network of Street Papers (INSP), an association of some 55 publications like The Big Issue in 28 countries. The first competition took place in Graz, Austria, in 2003 and the second was held in Gothenburg, Sweden the following year. Four months after the 2004 Homeless World Cup, of the 204 players who took part:
- 16 had signed professional or semi-professional contracts with football clubs
- 78 had found regular employment
- 95 had improved their housing situation
The organisers also estimated that thousands of people's lives had improved through participating in a regular team sport, as it provided an important catalyst in their rehabilitation.
Australia's Street Socceroos first competed in Edinburgh, Scotland in 2005, placing a respectable seventh. Last year's event took place in Cape Town, South Africa.
The Victorian Government supported The Big Issue's bid for the event through a $500,000 package that included $350,000 to expand the Melbourne-based soccer training programs into Ballarat, Geelong and Shepparton in the lead up to 2008. Selection tournaments will be held closer to the event to pick this year's Street Socceroos team.
Street soccer differs from the conventional game because it is played in an enclosed 20 x 14 metre pitch Teams from over 50 countries will take part playing on a enclosed pitch that imitates a street surface. Teams of four play 14 minute games. Players can use the timber walls of the pitch to ricochet the ball making for a fast moving game!
The bid also received strong support from Melbourne's corporate community with sponsorships from Smorgon Steel, The Body Shop, Goldman Sachs JB Were, BHP Billiton, MECU, Origin Energy, Spotless, Australia Post and The Age.
A major international conference on homelessness will be held in Melbourne to coincide with the Homeless World Cup.
More information
- Visit The Big Issue's website
The Centre
for Volunteering [ABN 28 002 416 024]
Level 2, 228 Pitt Street, Sydney NSW 2000
T: 02 9261 3600 | F: 02 9261 4033 | E: info@volunteering.com.au
www.volunteering.com.au