Thursday, 26 February 2015 00:37
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Standard Chartered’s Go Forward program entered its next phase – GOAL – with a three day workshop held at the Football Federation of Sri Lanka’s auditorium last week for some 30 coaches from across the island. GOAL will focus on bringing life skills as well as leadership skills to adolescent boys and girls grooming them to positions of peer leaders in their communities. Sarah Murray and Nicole Matuska of Women Win, specialist trainers on the GOAL curriculum, conducted the sessions for the coaches, together with representatives from Standard Chartered.
Pardha Saradhi, CCRO/SCO Corporate, Institutional & Commercial Clients, Sri Lanka, and Sanjay Wijemanne, Head – Retail Clients, Country Management Group sponsors for the GOAL initiative, commenting on the program said: “GOAL is our global program which uses sport and life skills to transform the lives of adolescent girls. For the first time the program will include boys and Sri Lanka will pilot that aspect of the project.”
GOAL is a unique multi-stakeholder community program sponsored by Standard Chartered that aims to empower young women (and boys, for the first time, globally, in its program format) for personal and economic development using sport and education as vehicles for change. Using sport and a customised curriculum, the program addresses disadvantaged youth with the aims of increasing self-confidence and self-value, improving group and community solidarity, enhancing the community and family perception of the value of boys and girls, and enabling pathways for economic development.
GOAL covers four core content areas – communication skills, health and hygiene, rights and resources, and financial literacy – that are delivered along with sport training. In Sri Lanka GOAL will use football as the focus sport and coaches from the FFSL and bank staff will deliver the course content.
GOAL was launched as a pilot in 2006 in partnership with the International Federation of Netball Associations and Naz Foundation India Trust. The Bank recognises that women are disproportionately affected by today’s global challenges yet at the same time, are key to tackling those very challenges. Investing in women also has a multiplier effect – for example, women can raise healthy, educated families. The inclusion of boys within the structure of the program, for the first time, will provide opportunities for participants in the Go Forward program in Sri Lanka to step forward and access a broader range of skills.
The aim of GOAL is to provide opportunities and role models to help boys and girls achieve their full potential, to empower youth to improve social and economic development with access to communication and commercial skills and knowledge of individual rights and liberties. The ultimate aim of GOAL aspires to grooming enough youth to take up positions of leadership within their own societies as well as enhancing employability and networking opportunities.
