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>View discussions about this entry Country: United States
Organization: Refugee Children's Foundation for Sports & Arts.
Sport - Basketball
Year the initative began (yyyy) - 2007
Project URL: http://www.refugeechildren.org
Positioning in the Mosaic of solutions
What is your signature innovation, your new idea, in one sentence? - Replacing Despair with Hope!
Describe your innovation. What makes your idea unique and different than others doing work in the field? - We provide a safe, affordable, and nurturing environment for refugee youths in San Dieg, Calfornia to improve their physical, mental, and emotional fitness through sports, arts, and peer leadership training. Our services are affordable/free of charge to the refugee children who are unable to pay.
What are the existing barriers, the biggest problem, your innovation is hoping to address/change? - Create a mechanism for enabling refugee children to access the educational and recreational resources that are available in the community and to identify and remove obstacles to benefiting from those resources.
Provide refugee children with the opportunity to interact with their American peers through community- organized sports & arts activities that will enhance a proper acculturation process for refugees. Work in conjunction with social services agencies and other refugee-based organizations to help eradicate substance abuse and other social issues amongst refugee youths by identifying individual needs of each refugee child and work towards meeting those needs in a suitable manner. Create scholarship opportunities for refugee youths by offering valuable technical trainings that will help them develop marketable skills early on in life. Provide opportunities that may encourage refugee parents to get more involved in their children's sports and recreational activities. Organize regular community events for refugee youths to celebrate their heritage and enlighten their American friends of different world cultures Delivery Model: How do you implement your innovation and apply it to the challenge/problem you are addressing? - This field has not been completed
How do you plan to grow your innovation? - This field has not been completed
Provide one sentence describing your impact/intended impact. - We currently have 43 children enrolled in our Sudanese-American Basketball League and the number is growing.
What impact has your innovation had to date/or what is your intended impact? Exactly who are the beneficiaries? - The idea behind luanching this project is to build spirit of competitiveness amongs refugee children in the US, teach them to following rules, achieving goals, and celebrating victories.
Please list any other measures reflective of the impact of your innovation? - Last weekend, 12/1//2007, The hard work of our refugee children was crowned with the ultimate victory as our children won the championship in a semi-county wide youth basketball tournament.
What are the main barriers to creating or achieving your impact? - lack of resources: Transportation, Sports equipment, etc.
How is your initiative financed (or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)? - Contributions for refugee parents.
What are the main barriers to financial sustainability? - We are currently a state recongnized non-profit organization, but we have not yet received our 501(c) 3.
What is the origin of this innovation? Tell us your story. - The Refugee Children's Foundation for Sports & Arts (RCF) is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting community wellness through organizing youth-oriented sports & Arts activities for refugees.
Currently, there are around 4,000 Sudanese refugees in San Diego, Califonia, and the RCF was established in January 2007 to help address the social and recreational needs of the Sudanese refugees in Southern California . We work to provide a safe, affordable, and nurturing environment for all refugee youths to improve their physical, mental, and emotional fitness through sports, arts, and peer leadership training. Our organization also works to foster educational, occupational, and economic opportunities for refugee youths by partnering with local businesses and organizations Contact Information:
Francis Ring
President Refugee Children's Foundation for Sports & Arts. (Community grassroots project) Discussions about this entry |
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Sudanese-American Basketball League
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Hi Francis,
I LOVE this project and I think you are doing awesome work. There appears to be a tipping point around different sports programs focusing on refugee youth. My colleague is going to visit a Liberian team in NY that is doing similar work. How cool would it be to create links across all these programs?! Also, there was a huge spread in the NY Times a while back about a project in Atlanta, GA (see link: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/21/us/21fugees.html)
Staton Island refugee soccer: http://www.brycs.org/brycs_featureRosa.htm
Keep up the awesome work.
Ziba
Yes, it would be nice to have a link/network amongst these programs since we all appear to have common goals! In doing so, I believe all our program participants would be best served.
Sincerely,
Francis Ring
Hi Francis,
I LOVE this project and I think you are doing awesome work. There appears to be a tipping point around different sports programs focusing on refugee youth. My colleague is going to visit a Liberian team in NY that is doing similar work. How cool would it be to create links across all these programs?! Also, there was a huge spread in the NY Times a while back about a project in Atlanta, GA (see link: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/21/us/21fugees.html)
Staton Island refugee soccer: http://www.brycs.org/brycs_featureRosa.htm
Keep up the awesome work.
Ziba
Hi Francis,
I LOVE this project and I think you are doing awesome work. There appears to be a tipping point around different sports programs focusing on refugee youth. My colleague is going to visit a Liberian team in NY that is doing similar work. How cool would it be to create links across all these programs?! Also, there was a huge spread in the NY Times a while back about a project in Atlanta, GA (see link: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/21/us/21fugees.html)
Staton Island refugee soccer: http://www.brycs.org/brycs_featureRosa.htm
Keep up the awesome work.
Z
Hi Francis,
Being from San Diego myself, I'm thrilled to see this initiative having such an important impact! You mentioned a few very important facets to your program; namely, the eradication of substance abuse among refugee youth, parent involvement in their child's recreational activities, scholarship opportunities, skill-set development, and Sudanese-American cultural exchange. How do you accomplish each of these objectives, and how successful have each been thus far? Also, I was curious as to what other refugee-based organizations and social service agencies you work with.
Thanks for this great entry!
Regards,
Grant
Changemakers
Grant: How nice to learn that you are from San Diego as well. Just so that you know, I moved to San Diego as a refugee from Sudan in 1999, and I have stayed in San Diego ever since. I love the place, I love the weather, and most importantly, I love the diverse people of San Diego! With that said, please allow me to speak on behalf of my fellow refugees here to thank all of you San Deigns for hosting us in your beautiful town!
In regards to your inquiry, here is our organization responses:
First, Eradication of substance abuse:
Being a refugee myself, I have experienced “first hand” the special needs of a refugee and I fully understand that refugees bring different cultural norms with them regarding family roles and child discipline. And as a social worker, I am aware of some of the common risk factors that could expose a refugee to substance abuse they include: Social isolation, child abuse and neglect. Our organization addresses and meet children’s need in those areas by providing a caring, and culturally dynamic environment in which refugee children can easily identify to. We believe sports releases stress and encourage teamwork. During the last few months, we have witnessed many refugee children who were socially isolated gain self-esteem, build remarkable friendship with other children, and turn into role models for other children.
Parent Involvement in Children’s Activities, Sudanese-American Cultural Exchange:
As you may be aware of, most refugee parents, unlike other immigrants, speak very limited English and most often are unaware of the opportunities and resources available in the community for them and their families. Our organization assists in linking the families with the appropriate resources by reaching out to refugee parents in their contort zones (community gathering places, places of worships, and community centers.) We reach out to refugees in those hard-to-reach areas to educate parents and pass out other important messages.
Our Relations with Refugee-based Organizations and other Social Service Agencies:
It is our future plan to collaborate with the local child welfare agencies, refugee resettlement agencies, and other mainstream community organizations. We would like to have an opportunity to meet with those agencies on a regular basis to discuss ongoing issues related to refugee resettlement, and acculturation. We believe such meetings will create opportunities for all these agencies to share concerns, and address issues.
I hope that answered your questions. If you are around here in San Diego, and would like to stop by, please let me know. You can reach me at Sudanese_american@yahoo.com
Sincerely,
Francis Ring
Sudanese-American Basketball League.
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