© 2nd picture, 3rd row; 5th picture, 4th row: MSV Duisburg / Nico Herbertz

The FtK Club Challenge has been the main focus in schools in recent weeks. From T-shirt design and museum visits to children’s press conferences, the children have been involved with “their” professional football club in a variety of ways. We have collected the great impressions in this article (to be updated soon). We would like to take this opportunity to thank all participating FtK groups once again for their great commitment.

Augsburg

As part of the FtK Club Challenge, the 24 children from Bärenkeller primary and secondary school came up with questions to ask a professional footballer from their club, FC Augsburg, via video message. Due to the pandemic, midfielder Tim Civeja sent greetings to the FtK kids via video and encouraged them to learn. The boys and girls from the fifth grade also designed their diaries and presented their first works of art.

The FtK year 2021/22 was eventful, intense and full of fun for the children supported in Stuttgart. From a contemplative Christmas party to a wide range of cultural activities and the final cross-FtK tournament in June – there was plenty on offer.

After a very complicated time for the children and everyone involved, which was mainly characterized by the pandemic-related restrictions, the FtK school year 2021/22 was able to start again with many support offers. The program included team-building measures, a Christmas party, cultural and sporting activities, the FtK Club Challenge and, of course, the big final tournament in Frankfurt in June 2022. Below we have collected a few impressions of selected highlights from the season:

KuBUS and visit to the art museum

The 3rd graders at Lerchenrain School were able to go on a two-part excursion in their first FtK year. On 05.04.2022, the Kubus (short for art bus) came to the school. The kids were allowed to give free rein to their creativity in the “Pure Chance” workshop. The children had great fun tracing different patterns and reassembling small pieces of paper. The kids loved the station with colors, balloons and balls and created beautiful works of art. When it came to drawing portraits, all you could hear was a general giggle. The following week, we went on a guided tour of the Stuttgart Art Museum. Despite initial complaints, the mood in the art museum improved considerably. And the works of art were viewed with varying degrees of interest. One child even had a little drawing book with her to sketch all the artworks for her friends. This meant that the excursion could still be recounted in pictures the next day. And on the way home, there were still lively discussions about the art.

Climbing in Cityrock

On 04.05.2022, the FtK kids from Eichendorff School put on their sports gear, packed their drinks and headed off to climb at Cityrock. A little late, but still highly motivated, the excursion could be started. Once we arrived at Cityrock, we started straight away. To warm up, everyone was allowed to climb along the lower end of the climbing wall. This allowed the kids to get a feel for what was to come. This was immediately followed by a team-building task in which the kids had to imagine transporting materials over a large mountain range. Of course, everyone mastered the task brilliantly and almost all of the climbing equipment was transported over the mountain in the end.

The FtK final tournament

Even on the day before the tournament, the kids’ anticipation was palpable and they were already talking about the cool time ahead on the bus. On the day of the tournament, the Stuttgart FtK group set up in their pavilion and the spectacle could begin. After a slight delay, the first game started at 09:30. The kids were highly motivated, the coach highly concentrated and the rest were simply in a good mood and excited. The Stuttgart kids had a total of five games to play. The other teams in the group were strong, but the group still put up a good fight and managed to win one game after a number of scoring chances. Unfortunately, they had to concede defeat to their opponents in two games, while two other games ended in a well-deserved draw.

Over 40 teachers and trainers from the 35 “Fußball trifft Kultur” locations across Germany took part in the second network meeting of 2022 on November 18 and 19, 2022. In addition to the opportunity to exchange ideas, the meeting offered various workshops and training opportunities.

The network meeting plays a central role in the implementation of the “Fußball trifft Kultur” program. It is both a platform and a place of exchange for the experiences of our FtKers from various locations in Germany and offers the opportunity to network and learn together.

At the second network meeting, innovations were once again presented, discussions held, experiences gathered and tips exchanged. How things are going in the individual program groups, what developments can be observed among the children, where there is a need for action – through a lively exchange, all participants were able to take a lot of information back to their programs.

The main topics on Friday were the workshops “Conflict Resolution” and “Cyberbullying”, which offered our teachers and trainers strategies for dealing with conflicts within the program groups. This was followed by a focus on sustainability in the partner clubs, the main topic for the coming six months. Stephan Bandholz from 1. FSV Mainz 05 gave a keynote speech in which he explained how Mainz 05 is approaching the major topic of sustainability.

The second day of the network meeting focused entirely on exchange and cooperation. Successes, challenges and ideas were exchanged and specific topics worked on in various discussion rounds. The focus was on child protection. Our child protection concept was discussed with all participants and a code of conduct for teachers and trainers was drawn up. The presentation of best practice examples from the programs themselves was particularly valuable, allowing teachers and trainers to learn from and with each other.

We would like to thank all participants for their great commitment and the exciting exchange – we look forward to the next time.

We receive 17,500 euros in funding with “Fußball trifft Kultur” as part of Union Investment’s “Wir für morgen” charity initiative.

The charity initiative “Wir für morgen” (We for tomorrow) by the fund management company Union Investment focuses on charitable associations and foundations from all over Germany that are committed to social justice, more equal opportunities and better environmental awareness.
“When we announced the awards publicly for the first time in the spring, we would never have dared to dream that over 230 associations and other organizations would apply for the prizes in the environmental, social and educational categories,” said patron and CEO Hans Joachim Reinke.
Under his chairmanship, the jury team, consisting of actor and documentary filmmaker Hannes Jaenicke (Environment category), former professional footballer and foundation founder Neven Subotic (Social category), “Network Opportunities” founder Natalya Nepomnyashcha (Education category) and a youth jury, selected a total of nine winning projects.
The award ceremony took place on November 20 at the Städel in Frankfurt.