Boxgirls Roadwork: Girls and Women Running the City
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>View discussions about this entry País: Kenya
Organization: Boxgirls International
Sport - Running
Year the initative began (yyyy) - 2007
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Project URL: http://www.boxgirls.de
Positioning in the Mosaic of solutions
What is your signature innovation, your new idea, in one sentence? - The traditional training techniques of amateur boxing paired with urban running to create a bold new experience for girls and women.
Describe your innovation. What makes your idea unique and different than others doing work in the field? - Boxers run. Every morning very early boxers pull on their hooded sweatshirts and hit the road for their roadwork. Not all runners box - but they should since it builds core stability, coordination and upper body strength which makes them stronger runners. We are building on our experience in running fun amateur boxing programmes for young women to build a new type of running programme which uses the tested traditional training techniques of boxing with the up to the nano second technology of Nike + to create a more complete sports experience for girls and young women in cities throughout the world. Sports programmes for women and girls that aim to increase self-confidence must, in our view, also provide the participants with the skills and self-belief that they can defend themselves. More than a boxing or a running club, Boxgirls Roadwork brings the best of these sports together and opens the world to our clubs to web enabled running challenges and networks.
What are the existing barriers, the biggest problem, your innovation is hoping to address/change? - Women's sports programmes talk about improving self-confidence but do not always include self-defence in their programmes. By bringing the best of traditional boxing training to the fun and community of running we will allow many more women to get active and be safe in their cities. Young sports leaders also need to know that they can protect themselves. Nothing is as unsettling than being afraid. To create young athlete leaders, we need to give them the assuredness of physical security.
Delivery Model: How do you implement your innovation and apply it to the challenge/problem you are addressing? - We visit existing running & boxing clubs to bring them together and deliver cross training plans. We train trainers in our target cities to deliver the programme in their regions. We help clubs attract more female members and provide training on how to be successful at retaining girls and young women. We will share our existing training resources and videos through a web based platform and cds. We will host running events with boxing exercises where Boxgirls Roadwork clubs can challenge each other across the world through Nike+ but also get their families, neighbours and on line communities to join in. Alongside runs as public events we will host informational meetings at amateur boxing events and boxing exercises at major runs as a way to attract more members. Events will be inclusive. We will partner with other local organisations to encourage the girls and young women who are interested in the internet to learn computer skills - for work or for fun depending on their local need.
How do you plan to grow your innovation? - Once we have a core group of regional hubs: Berlin, Nairobi, Cape Town, Seattle, and Toronto (then Tokyo, Rio and London) and sufficient structures in place we should be able to accept new clubs. A larger membership base will itself create new opportunities for innovation as we can tap our members for ideas for events, school curricula, training plans and power song lists! We would provide the initial impulse for the regional hubs and support their organisational capacity building so that they can be self-sufficient and ultimately do outreach into their regions to start more Boxgirls Roadworks projects. We will also evolve our training materials to fit the various cultural and social situations of the girls we are reaching out to. Their videos and training plans will become part of the Boxgirls curriculum and passed on to new groups to improve upon. Our monitoring and evaluation practices will also evolve. We will integrate paralympic athletes in our events.
Provide one sentence describing your impact/intended impact. - Girls and Women improve health and self assuredness through running and boxing while learning computer skills to connect around the world.
What impact has your innovation had to date/or what is your intended impact? Exactly who are the beneficiaries? - Through our biweekly training, school events, tournaments and media outreach we have created an entirely new environment for girls to box in Berlin and in Germany. We can see this through the positive press and parent responses and the improving relationships with schools. Evaluation work carried out by students at the Humboldt University in Berlin and the German Sports University reported that the girls feel much safer and stronger after participating in our programmes and take a more proactive approach to their school life.
With a focused running programme like Boxgirls Roadwork we will be able to reach more young women and girls since the training is done in public on the road (rather than in a gym) and we can work on our goal of having more girls participating in sport and feeling secure in public spaces. While Boxgirls Roadwork will appeal to a wide range of people, our target group is young women 12-26 from underserviced urban areas but many others benefit: school coaches etc
Please list any other measures reflective of the impact of your innovation? - Many girls stop smoking and adopt more healthy eating behaviours based on positive peer pressure.
Sports journalists and local politicians are more informed and advocate for girls' sports needs better. Our young women are recognised in their community as innovators and leaders by the press and government. e.g. winning a Star of Sports award 2007 and being chosen as a model project in the UN Year of Sport and Physical Activity 2005. Our Nairobi club performed at UN World Habitat Day. What are the main barriers to creating or achieving your impact? - Discrimination against girls and young women, not allowing them free time to develop themselves in some countries
Girls chaotic schedules which make it difficult for girls-focussed programmes to keep their members for long enough to achieve a lasting effect. Finding coaching staff with the gender, pedagogical and strategic skills to track the changes in their young members. The need for indoor facilities during winter months and storage of club gear when we do have our own gym. How is your initiative financed (or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)? - The original Boxgirls project has been financed through its members, the German Children and Youth Foundation, the Landessportbund and the German Ministry of the Interior. For Boxgirls Roadwork we will raise money from our members, partner with local schools, approach Nike for Nike+ support, Women Win for a start up grant, work with UN Habitat to make the case that running and boxing as urban sports have a role to play in their "safer cities" programme, recruit paying members and have a strong internet presence with the possibility to accept world wide donations from other runners and boxers who want to show solidarity. As we collect evidence of our effectiveness we will approach further corporate partners who align with our goals.
If known, provide information on your finances and organization. - Please list: Annual budget, annual revenue generated, size of part-time, full-time and volunteer staff. We are currently all volunteers. We have managed to grow Boxgirls to a vibrant stable organisation on a very small budget and many volunteer hours. We will start with small budgets for each city for Boxgirls Roadwork. These initial budgets would include resources for the Nike + infrastructure (hopefully in kind), computer access, communications (video, internet, phone), volunteer incentives, training of volunteers, marketing, networking and basic sports equipment.
We plan to create a volunteer driven organisation with part time paid network support and contract work where required. e.g. coaching development and participatory evaluation What is the potential demand for your innovation? - Running clubs and boxing clubs exist in all major cities of the world. We would like to have 4 sites running (Berlin, Nairobi, Cape Town or Durban, and Seattle or San Francisco) by the middle of 2008 and another 3 sites by 2009!
Once these regional hubs are in place and able to do their own training of trainers we will reach out to more schools and clubs to take part. There is demand there but we need to stabilise our structures first. What are the main barriers to financial sustainability? - *We will need to have enough members in high income countries to subsidise the members in low income countries to launch the programme to gather the evidence to make the case to other funders.
*Nike+ Infrastructure will have to be provided to girls and young women in many disadvantaged cities as they would not be able to pay for it themselves. *Sports projects which focus on individuals and not teams do not create the mass numbers that some corporate sponsors expect. What is the origin of this innovation? Tell us your story. - Cross country running was my passion as a child. I wasn't a great runner but I loved the peace and calmness that would come to me running through Vancouver's cedar forests where I grew up in Canada. In Toronto, I discovered amateur boxing as a beautiful sport of rhythm, speed and tactics, far away from the bloody brutality of the professional game. I also got into the best shape of my life through boxing training and learned about myself through constant confrontation and collaboration with others in the ring. In Berlin I boxed and then decided to start a boxing club for women where women would coach and lead. Boxgirls Berlin became a success with the work of many other creative and hard working women and girls. In 2007 in Nairobi we launched a new Boxgirls site in partnership with women boxers from Eastlands and realised we could reach even more women by inviting them to come run with us. In 2007 I first saw Nike + and loved the idea of being able to capture and compare running data with training partners all over the world. We decided to have the Kenyan and German girls workout "together" through running with Nike+ and create the basis for more exchanges and sharing in the future.
Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers marketing material. - I was born in London, UK and grew in Vancouver before studying Philosophy and Political Theory in Toronto & Berlin. My mom is a dedicated volunteer for amateur hockey and I was a volunteer baseball coach and umpire in my teens. So I had always known how sport could create social change by forming young leaders since I had benefited. When I moved to Berlin I became active in my community by starting a sports club that is also a sort of laboratory for creating participatory democracy.
Contact Information:
Heather Cameron
Executive Director Boxgirls International (NGO) Discussions about this entry |
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Pressemappe Boxgirl1110s.doc Boxgirls_Goethe.pdf |
Dear Heather:
Thank you for participating in this collaborative competition. We value the time and effort you’ve put forth and we would like to offer you feedback and some thought provoking questions from our Evaluation Team.
The project is bold and unique in the way it uses running and boxing to promote the health and self-confidence of girls and young women. Boxgirls Roadworks also has definite potential as a replicable model and is a good example of “north-south” collaboration. The project’s development focus, however, seems indirect, and its scale to date has been relatively small.
Please use this input as both potential insights into your innovations, as well as constructive ideas for how to improve or grow your organization.
Warm regards,
The Changemakers Evaluation Team
Hi Box girls,
Nice to read your profile. Great work! we are together to see you succeed in this competition. We are happy to learn about the great work you do. Network with the Smart Ladies Please. We would wish to incoorporate your good work with the girls and young women whom we also target with sports and health inforamtion. It will be nice to introduce something new and more innovative here.
Best of Luck Cameron
When the girls are out there doing nothing the temptation is too much. Boxgirls gives them confidence and a sense of self defence especially during this time we are having skirmishes in Kenya whereby girls and women are the most victimized. It also makes the girls strong and keeps them healthy. What we want to achieve this year is to see more girls joining and helping the society through boxgirls projects like making our society a better place through sports. Sports for social change. We are looking forward to the workshop in Kenya for boxgirls and we are looking forward to hold a workshop in Germany if it would be possible. Boxing practice helps girls have enduranceand learn to deal with whatever challenge they face in life. Priest
>We are looking forward to the workshop in Kenya for boxgirls and we are looking forward to hold a >workshop in Germany if it would be possible. Boxing practice helps girls have enduranceand learn to deal >with whatever challenge they face in life.
This is brilliant
You can count on YAFNET's vote.
If you are in Kenya, please contact me via 0721 559424
http://profiles.takingitglobal.org
www.yafnetkenya.org - still under constuction.
Wish you all the best
Cheers
YAFNET, We Simplify Networking,
When the girls are out there doing nothing the temptation is too much. Boxgirls gives them confidence and a sense of self defence especially during this time we are having skirmishes in Kenya whereby girls and women are the most victimized. It also makes the girls strong and keeps them healthy. What we want to achieve this year is to see more girls joining and helping the society through boxgirls projects like making our society a better place through sports. Sports for social change. We are looking forward to the workshop in Kenya for boxgirls and we are looking forward to hold a workshop in Germany if it would be possible. Boxing practice helps girls have enduranceand learn to deal with whatever challenge they face in life. Priest
Hi everyone,
Boxgirls Roadwork now has its own group on the German facebook equivalent, StudiVZ. For those of you active in Germany and interested, this will be a platform to stay in touch beyond this competition.
Find us at:
http://www.studivz.net/Groups/Overview/1a1f6d2559b1bf1d
Jasper Nicolaisen
Free University Berlin
University Challenge
I appreciate the project please go on
see you in Rwanda
Thanks to all of you out there who helped us with our entry with good questions, input and ideas for people for us to work with. I hope that after the competition many of the connections we have been able to make will continue to grow so that we can all continue to create better worlds through sport.
Thanks to the trainer team in Germany and Kenya for all the hard work with the girls and our team at the Free University who have posed some intriguing and challenging questions.
All the best,
HC
Heather Cameron
Free University Berlin
University Challenge
Dear Heather,
I write to you from Costa Rica with excitment because it is wonderful to know that people are reaching out to poorer areas of our world. I work in international volunteer efforts and management for a non-profit so I am familiar with projects to reach underserved peoples but none that are about sport. This makes your project good! The question I have is about managing the equipment so you do not have many problems with people selling or "lose" it once it is theirs or they are in charge of it. This is always a tough issue and one my organization talks about lots so I am wondering what you will do to address it? Here in Costa Rica for many young girls it is a very big deal to be given such cool technology and I could see many of it disappearing. We many times have the same troubles but with doing art projects and many of the materials being suddenly gone. I feel I can easily see this project run smoothly in middle/high income girls but being difficult with poorer. I would love to share thoughts and sorry for my english not being perfect.
Buena suerte y muchas gracias,
Jose C.
Greetings,
i am traveling to costa rica this april and would like to connect with anyone doing "girls boxing" there. I am a social worker and also have competed in boxing for over 7 years. currently, i teach boxing both to instructors and to students and love the sport tremendously. I also believe in giving people the opportunity to access their power and build the confidence necessary to live their lives to the fullest. it would be wonderful to connect with others around the world to grow the number of skilled trainers and to learn from one another...especially in boxing programs that are created to help others. check out the gym i collaborate with. currently we have several young men from Uganda working in our gym...
www.twincitiesboxing.com
thx,
rebecca joy
Dear Jose
Thanks for your questions. We do not plan to hand out ipods or Nike+ technology to the members of our groups, but instead to give one set to the trainers and project coordinators to use on group runs and for linking team results to the other boxgirls projects all over the world over the Nike+ page. The trainer/coordinator (we are a small lean organisation so these jobs are often done by the same person) will have to be a person of integrity since they are entrusted with the finances of the boxgirls project in their city as a whole. We can trust these people. In richer countries runners and boxers may have their own ipod and nike+ equipment which we will encourage them to use through special training podcasts etc but we will not provide the technology.
Our programme also gives the girls quite a lot of say on how the money is used in the programme and they also work for part of it through organisating events, seliing tshirts, doing demonstrations etc. This gives a greater sense of ownership. We also do group inventory control so that everyone is involved and procedures are as transparent as possible. These are our strategies against "losing" things.
All the best from Berlin
Heather Cameron
Free University Berlin
University Challenge
I find that it is totally important that in countries like South Africa and Kenya that girls learn to be independent and defend themselves nd that we encourage them to try new things an learn to fight for what they believe in. I encourage everyone to support this great initiative for girls and women.
S
I do particularly like the idea of entering public urban spaces while running and exercising, to retrieve those places especially to women and set a signal to the rest of society. Of course it would be great if the project at a later stage could be extended to a mutual exchange program in order to enlarge the girls' perspectives when visiting one other in Nairobi and Berlin. All the best to the projects' future and I would like to say thank you to the dedicated organizers for their committed work.
Hey Heather,
Your project looks like it is based on a really successful model and I think that there are many changemakers who could benefit from some aspects of your programme design.
From reading many of the competition entries, it seems to me that there are loads of projects and innovations that are achieving great outcomes in their communities and many have goals to expand and replicate their initiatives in neighbouring regions and countries.
Maybe you could elaborate a littel on how Boxgirls Roadworks began in Kenya and perhaps you have some advice to share from your experiences in setting up in Kenya. Are there some lessons that you have learnt as your programme has grown and maybe some strategies you would change as you move into new countries?
Thanks for sharing those videos too! They really bring life to your project and help us boxing-rookies to understand what your project is achieving.
All the best,
Jackie
Jackie Lauff
Free University Berlin
University Challenge
Ich durfte mitbekommen, wie die Boxgirls in Deutschland arbeiten. Mit höchster Motivation wurden Mädchen und Frauen in das Boxen eingewiesen und ihnen der Sport nahe gebracht. Der Erfolg und die Resonanz hier in Deutschland ist durchweg positiv und ich finde das Projekt und das Engagement wunderbar. Wenn ich mir vorstelle was man mit diesem Projekt in Kenia alles erreichen könnte ...
Ich wünsche alles alles gut und immer weiter so.
Danke
Herzliche Grüße Christian
In Germani I was abel to see how the "boxgirls" work and exer. It was fantstic to see how girls and wemen are introduced to and teached in boxing. The success and the resonanze over here in Germany is very positive. It will be greate to see such results in Kenia because i think they the boxgirl projekt will move and change even more in Kenia.
(excuse me for my bad english)
Hi everyone,
There are great new videos about boxgirls now available from our friends at Insight and the German Children and Youth Foundation.
Please take a look at:
http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=yiPXKp0y7II&feature=related
The girls don’t talk a lot but they sure work hard at our gym in Berlin. This shows floor work, pads and sparring. The girls say:
Boxing makes me strong! Boxing makes me fast! Boxing makes me clever! We made this video ourselves with some technical support from Holger and Linda! Thanks to everyone.
Insight has put up a video featuring sport innovators Trevor from Uganda and Felicite from Rwanda and Heather from Canada and Germany from Boxgirls. This one is in English. Check it out.
http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=-I2GxbjRnBA
Please write us back and let us know what you think. We look forward to your comments!
Jasper Nicolaisen
Free University Berlin
University Challenge
What happens in Kenya right now shows us the importance of self-assurance and the ability to self-defence. Weak, sick and insecure persons are the group that suffers most in uncertain times.
So train as many young women as possible to help them not being victims any more but change the unacceptable situation in their own country!
I think it is a great idea to empower women through physical training and the art of defence. I agree with 'flaka' that it is often women suffering under military interventions, often subjected to physical transgressions and rape. Hence, training women in 'peaceful' defence to build a more secure and interlinked world is a great idea!
Hi Cameron,
I find your project very intriguing and I believe it has great potential. I am curious to learn more about how exactly you will be working in countries that are lower income. Still, there have been many barriers to how best to deliver this kind of innovative technology, whether it be computers or special Nike + tools, and ensure that it will be used properly. If girls/families are illiterate or not computer-illiterate or do not speak the majority language how will they be encouraged to participate? Is there a way to create an interface that is image/picture based versus linguistic? Perhaps even appearing similar to the tools that hospitals are using to create dialogue and understand patients’ pain levels who do not speak the language of their providers. I think it is wonderful and so important that this project targets girls/women because I believe when it comes to communication and networking this is a group that is often not addressed. Perhaps creating tools that work to address issues of illiteracy will help make all women, regardless of language ability or computer skills, feel more excited and empowered to participate.
Thanks and Best of Luck!
Leora
Dear Leora
Thanks for your interesting questions and ideas about how to work in lower income countries. I value your input from your experiences providing medical services in the outer regions of Peru. Our growth strategy involvescou ntries where a large part of the population speak english - Kenya, South Africa, United States and Canada- in these countries we recruit/have recruited volunteer coaches and project leaders who can speak and write both english and the local language. We have not yet been confronted with the need to provide direct literacy support through our sport and leadership programmes but we may need to later and we plan on finding other local NGO partners to do this. Many times computer skill building NGOs do not have a sport programme and vice versa so we have partnered with other groups to provide special training and services in areas where we do not specialise.
In terms of computers, ipods and other high value equipment and making sure they are used properly: We do not plan to issue all of our members with ipods and Nike+. We want to provide a platform for those who have these devices to have fun using them and bind them to our programmes through fun online content, coaching podcasts and tools that use the Nike+ interface. In the projects in lower income areas we plan on issuing the infrastructure to the project manager/coach to be responsible for and to use on group runs or to create team challenges. It would not be issued as a personal possession but like a boxing heavy bag that the entire team uses. Most important as with all team building projects everywhere is to instill a value of team spirit and respect for the team's gear. Like the literacy training, computer training and access would be provided by partners. For example in Nairobi we do this through SOS Children's Village.
Heather Cameron
Free University
University Challenge
this is a very short but honest remark to your project i can do as a woman who just started boxing: this is a really cool and intelligent project to let social changes come forth from the self assuredness sport is giving.
Dear Heather:
Thanks for reaching out to us – we are glad that our general piece on the contest criteria – innovation, scale, and impact – was helpful to you.
We are encouraged by your thoughtful understanding and discussion of your target audience’s needs and meaningful outputs. As far as impact, we wondered whether the program could go even farther – we noticed that you had 3 goals: promoting a healthy sport, encouraging leadership, and outreach to build awareness. Based on your posting and comments, it appears you have succeeded all expectations on the first and third. We would love to hear more about the “leadership goal.” What does this mean to you and your girls? We could imagine that the pro-social behaviors (confidence, assertiveness) that your participants learn could translate into leadership, but the link wasn’t completely clear to us.
In addition, while you alluded to outcomes, have you had the opportunity to conduct a more formal evaluation on the full impact on your program – even using a simple pre and post test? (For example, that 40% of the participants increase their self confidence).
Also, as we reviewed your program, two thoughts occurred to us. One, given that you have aspirations of expansion, have you considered looking into an earned income strategy for your program? For example, think about Girl Scouts. Much of their revenue is earned through young girls/participants selling cookies for 1 month out of the year. While I am not advocating the sale of cookies specifically, your participants could learn a lot from becoming entrepreneurs and gain a sense of pride for supporting the program. The benefit for your organization would be that you would have a way to sustain your program as well as scale it. Two, have you heard about the U.S. program called Girls on the Run? It has a similar theory of change that might be interesting to you. They have gone through similar challenges as your program and might serve as a helpful model.
We enjoyed reading your submission. If you have specific questions on this posting, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
Sincerely,
Paul Bloom
Senior Research Scholar of Social Entrepreneurship and Marketing
Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship
Duke University – Fuqua School of Business
Suzanne Steffens
CASE Scholar
MBA Student, Class of 2008
Duke University – Fuqua School of Business
Dear Suzanne and Paul
Thank you for your comments and questions. We measure the girls' developing leadership skills through their activities and attitudes. Many of the girls when they joined were shy and or aloof and we have seen them turn into confient speakers, demonstators and motivators of others in the club. We run all of our activities as volunteers so there is a lot of work to do and they have a chance to jump in and lead.
We don't put them through an assessment centre style management test but we do have different repeated activities - press visits, school visits, public demonstratiosn and beginners workshops as well as basic repair and clean up actions where we get the girls to more and more take the lead. We can see their progress and they can see it themselves (more important!) because they can compare their current capacity to where they were before.
The German Children and Youth Foundation conducted an evaluation of our programme in 2005 through questionnaires and came up with the following results.
76% of the girls report having increased self confidence
73% claim to have become more courageous through the project
72% are more athletic thanks to the project
70% feel fitter
69% say they are more willing to help out
68% say they have become more tolerant.
We have also had an evaluation from the Humboldt University of Berlin 2007 who spoke to the girls and their parents who also reflected similar values.
In terms of earned income. We earn about 25% of our income now through membership fees, hosting events, equipment sales and consulting with other organisations (fee for service). We have also negotiated some sponsorship deas with Green Hill and others. We have spoken to partners in Nairobi about a range of income creation options and now conducting market research on creating a silk screening workshop. We will assess each city for its income generation options that meet our mission. Thanks for your questions.
Heather Cameron
Free University Berlin
University Challenge
Only wish I could understand the tv spot you had!
Thanks so much for starting a dialogue on our page, we had seen yours some months ago and were very intrigued.
I answered your thoughtful questions on our page and thanks again.
Peace for Kenya!!
Claire
Hope Runs
Partnering with Children to Outpace Poverty www.HopeRuns.org
- 17, 244 Miles Run
- 2, 5620 Donated Pairs of Running Shoes
- 26 Marathoners
- First Blog on the Internet Written by Orphans and Vulnerable Children
Hey!!!
It´s a very nice Projekt!!!
My cousin rosalia is in this projekt and she love it!
All the Best from Poland
Julia
I love how lean this program is in terms of infrastructure. It leaves you in the position to direct all most all of the funds received directly to programming. I think this will be particularly compelling when it comes to asking participants and grant makers in wealthier communities to subsidize the program in other places.
On the topic of growth, how much control do you hope to retain over the program? Could boxgirls utilize the viral nature of internet interfaces such as facebook, youtube, Nike+ and other online communities to grow? Could support materials and communities be developed so that a running/boxing community could spring up anywhere a group of willing participants exist?
Bethany
Hi Bethany
Thanks for your question and comments. Boxgirls is using web tools to get the word out about our programmes and plans to use more of the networking features of Nike+ and facebook to create a virtual community around the real communities we are building in Berlin, Nairobi and shortly Cape Town. We have made a lean model with good documentation and shared central services (website, media, coaching development resources) which allows all of the programmes to benefit from the work of the others. We have also spent a lot of time documenting processes and creating plasn so that things do not need to be repeatedly rebuilt out from start to finish, but more time can be spent on creating new opportunities based on the location the club is working in.
We see the internet and viral marketing as part of the adhesion strategy (keeping members involved with the programmes even when they are not training), for providing extra services (training plans, nutrition, fun videos etc.) and for political activities (informing people about decisions which affect girls ability to do sport) and fundraising (using the community to support needed projects in more disadvantaged areas). We are almost finished getting online with globalgiving where people from all over can get tax rebates for supporting our programmes on a secure site.
Finally, we cross train our staff in various areas from media to fundraising to press relations to parent work so that all of us are availabel to help new projects as they get started so that we have the human capital to grow new boxgirls roadwork programmes as well as the intellectual capital and financial resources. We plan on a steady deliberate expansion and we have generated a lot of interest from running programmes on changemakers to partner with them which is great.
Could you tell me what ideas you had around viral marketing and Boxgirls?
All the best from Berlin
HC
Heather Cameron
Free University Berlin
University Challenge
There are two very natural fits that come to mind.
The "Causes" application through facebook has been growing at a spectacular rate across the US and internationally. Made by a close friend of the founder of facebook, it fits seamlessly into the facebook interface and is a relatively flexible tool. Additionally, the programmers are still very accessible so if you are having difficulty there is a lot of free tech support available. Down side is that you have to align with a US based org with 501(c)3 or 501(c)4 status. Last time I spoke with them they were trying to innovate ways to work around this. As far as features go, this application allows facebook users to declare loyalty to a cause, fundraise, donate and bring others into the fold. It also allows the owner of the cause to blast messages to all of its members.
Youtube also makes a lot of sense to me as a potentially really good fit for Boxgirls. Youtube allows users to create customized web pages with space for comments, videos and lots of other cool features. It's like a much more robust version of myspace. The American candidates for president have done a great job fully utilizing the tool (http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=BarackObamadotcom) if you would like to see an example.
I see both of these tools as potential opportunities to let Boxgirl groups start organically. Provided that a group could start with informational materials and workout plans (videos, brochures, etc.) and without a trainer, you could set up a sort of chapter regime where participants work toward sending delegates to a conference or raising the money to invite a trainer to come to them.
Another nice side effect is that online communities are often more easily mobilized when it comes to creating political change (i can really only speak for the US, this may not be true elsewhere).
Bethany
Dear Bethany
Thanks fro your ideas. I will contact you privately to get some more ideas from your background in political advocacy and how small smart programmes can use the web to rally people sometimes better than big programmes with big budgets.
I have heard about a lot of innovative projects using the web to rally votes and comments and donations and make their case for the change they want to happen. The Grassroots Football programme for example and others.
I would be interested to hear from other marketing people lurking out there or organic internet intellectuals about applied techniques using viral marketing. Who has some good web resources on this...friends at changemakers, any good resources to point us at?
All the best from Berlin
Heather Cameron
Free University Berlin
University Challenge
Boxgirls’ Theory of Change Statement
By providing an inclusive female led training environment, Boxgirls allows young women who are often interested in individual pursuits and sometimes overly energetic a chance to turn that energy into positive team sporting achievements, as well as develop skills to prepare them not just to integrate, but take leadership roles in their communities.
This theory of change is based on the assumption that adolescent young women benefit from gender segregated sporting opportunities and that in the right environment, girls who do not see themselves as team sport players can develop team skills. We also assume that the girl’s sometimes auto-aggressive behavior (acting out in school, smoking, eating disorders etc.) can be challenged and even reversed by giving them an outlet for their aggression and surplus energy. This is of special importance for the considerable part of our members stemming from a disadvantaged family and community background with few strategies available to cope with frustration and anger in a productive way. We use the attraction that a fighting sport has for these young women and channel their destructive energy into ambition and determination. The traditions of our club and the existing role models of women leaders provide a clear pathway and incentive for the girls to see themselves as important contributors to their community. Our athletes report the changes they see in their behaviour due to the reduced stress and aggression – e.g. better concentration, better mood, more tolerant and greater self respect.
The older members of the club encourage the interest of the younger members in professional life and study. The volunteers entrusted with training the girls are carefully chosen and well qualified. They all hold licenses from the international amateur boxing association as well as German and/or Canadian coaching licenses. In addition, they have extra training in a variety of specialties, including gender, sport for people with disabilities and intercultural education. The trainer team is committed to continual education, and the position of our founder as a professor for educational science means that there is a continual access to the newest information on how to improve youth sport experiences. We take our time to help the girls learn how to be successful at public speaking, demonstrations and meeting local political leaders. We prepare them well, so they can have a successful experience, and as we know, success breeds success and self-confidence.
Boxgirls invests a lot of our resources in providing reliable information about girls’ sport and integration for the press and other interested parties. We organize press visits to the gym as well as participate in over ten public events a year, where we show what we do and are available to discuss the program. We have also worked with local universities and foundations to evaluate the impact of our programme. This helps us to focus our efforts and learn from others.
A look at national television and newspaper coverage that we have received shows that we have been successful in reaching out to a greater public. The fact that we are positively portrayed in the press and professional publications then helps the girls to understand how important the work is that they are doing and how a small program can have a national impact. In addition, reading positive press coverage about themselves gives our participants a sense of achievement, raises their status among their peers and positively reinforces our message that focusing your energy on constructive goals pays off in the end. Our investment in the press is also to help change the view that the public has about girls in sport and fighting sports in particular. Our successful press work helps with the rolling out of our project to different cities, because our model is well known and respected.
Heather Cameron
Free University Berlin
University
I like boxing, i do it since a half year in Berlin.
For me it´s a perfect mix between strength and condition.
The project is important that the girls and women get the strength ( physical and mental ) to countere the discrimination in this and other countries.
hi cameron,
thanks for this profound theory of change statement. it really helps to raise the project's theoretical backround.
as i understand the statement closely refers to the change of individuals. i would suggest to additionally extend the theory to a more societal level. how do boxgirls adress a change within their communities? and/or how do they even make a small contribution to a global change concerning the gap betwenn North and South?
i think jasper's comment about how to prove all the changes we want to create is a legitimate question. in order to prove (this term sounds strange) we probably need to measure. of course it's never an easy process to find a way for measuring qualities of outcomes / changes.
boxer/boxgirls trainer
humboldt-university berlin (alumna)
Dear Nadja, dear Jasper
Here are some ideas around how we measure impact and what we can do more of in the future, even as a small volunteer run club.
When we started Boxgirls, we set ourselves three goals. First, we wanted to promote healthy sport activity for young women. Second, we wanted to prepare our members to be young leaders in their communities. Third we wanted to use our success in these two areas with a well planned outreach and media strategy to create a new public impression of girls sport and girls leadership. We made a plan, set targets and invited others to help us assess how well we have reached these goals.
Our success in reaching the goal of creating a healthy activity for young women is proven by the continual rise in membership numbers we have seen and the results of both formal and informal feedback from our members about their feeling of wellbeing and fitness. Our staff of licensed coaches committed to ongoing professional qualification was able to attract girls and women from different age groups and ethnic backgrounds, as well as integrating athletes with special needs into an effective sports programme. Particularly helpful here was our additional expertise in gender sensitive and inclusive education. Our athletes have won many regional tournaments and others have enjoyed increased aerobic condition, muscle development and flexibility.
The health advantages are not just physical as many have reported a sense of greater calmness and well being. Among the youth members they have reported that participating in our program has reduced or even eliminated their destructive behavior, and a film project on the girls and their families undertaken in 2007 by the Cultural Studies faculty of the Humboldt University, Berlin, has illustrated these statements. Professional evaluation by the German Children and Youth Foundations program has also supported our claim to bringing about positive change for our participants in regard to the girl’s self-esteem and community activity.
The positive impact we had on our participants on that level has also empowered them to become active as leaders in the club and their communities. Our girls brief journalist guests on their own, they have helped to write grants for the club and to produce a video presentation on Boxgirls, they have spoken at committee meetings at the Berlin parliament (Abgeordnetenhaus), are active in supporting Boxgirls in the “Sport for a better world” competition and represented Boxgirls internationally at the Women Inc. trade show in Amsterdam and at IPSO in Munich. Such activities that go beyond just boxing indicate our success in reaching our second goal, forming girl leaders.
All the above activities have gained us widespread press coverage in the national press and TV outlets (Berliner Zeitung, Frankfurter Rundschau, BZ, Berliner Morgenpost, BBC World Serive, Radio Fritz, ARD, ZDF, RBB) as well as several university research projects. We have been invited to various international conferences on sport and gender (Nairobi 2007, Casablanca 2006, 2007, Windhoek 2007, Toronto 2005, Berlin 2005-2007, Amsterdam 2006) to present the Boxgirls’ model.
Boxgirls are now at a level where successes in each of our core goal areas mutually reinforce each other.
Heather Cameron
Free University
Cameron and everyone interested,
Al-Dersimspor has followed my call and posted some great thoughts on TOC. We now have a discussion going on about the social vs. entrepreneurial aspects of TOC and what tools and expertise to bring to a vision and strategy for your project. Join us, we´d love more input!
http://www.changemakers.net/en-us/node/4193#comment-3928
Jasper Nicolaisen
Free University Berlin
University Challenge
hi cameron,
thanks for the answer. i would love to discuss a bit more about it. like defining concrete (SMART) indicators to have a measuring. indicators for the whole international project, indicators for the local level. should be interesting to find a way that involves all the different situations and needs of our audiences.
i would also like to talk a bite more about risks and how to work with them, especially concerning the recent situation in kenya.
boxer/boxgirls trainer
humboldt-university berlin (alumna)
hi boxgirls!
my sister informed me about the project and i like it a lot. I box about fifteen years now and as you said, it's the best workout to keep in shape. i run all my live and i love runnig as well. so i think it's a wonderful thing to combine both "disciplines". i wish there would be s.th. similar for men, too :) .
especially i like the support of the girls in nairobi. i think in kenya women are not "supposed" to box. so it's great to support them and give them this way more self-confidence. by speaking about self-confidence and self-defence for girls. the girls should be aware that a trained and skilled female boxer is able to combat a male aggressor. but they should also be realistic that this is a long way to go of hard training and self-confidence.
generelly i think it's good thing that young women box in a for-girls-only-club, but you should take care not to exclude men completely. i box in a mixed club and one of the girls for example is a berlin-champion. she appreciates a lot to combat with us guys (she is damn tough) and get lessons by a male trainer. what i wanna say is, that female boxers can still learn a lot from male boxers (and especially trainers) since they have much more experience. and there isn't any difference between training men or women. i just hope that you can motivate also male trainers to support your project to gain a higher level of sports. especially skilled and experienced female boxers shouldn't ignore the opportunity to learn from male box-trainers.
i wish the project lots of succes and go girls!!!
hi adhamo,
thank you for your suggestions. it would be great to get YOU involved in the project. i think we could learn a lot from you (reg. running and boxing) and your crazy 'sportgeist'!
boxer/boxgirls trainer
humboldt-university berlin (alumna)
Hey Heather,
thanks, this is good stuff. In fact, I have been thinking on how to reliabliy prove the changes that we claim to make/clearly map a strategy myself, but lacking the right background, didn´t think of an actual Theory of Change, and now the web shows me, there´s lots of stuff out there about it. I referenced your bit to some of the projects I like here on cm, and hope that they come up with stuff that is as good - and help to improve yours. Here´s a longer one:
http://www.changemakers.net/en-us/node/4192#comment-3574
Nice work!
Jasper Nicolaisen
Free University Berlin
University Challenge
After reading your website and watching your videos, I'd just like to say how impressed I am with the positive attitude and engagement of those involved in Box Girls. Projects like this for women and girls are very important in improving self-confidence and creating a strong community in areas which are often male-dominated. The idea of creating "box hubs" around the world is a good one and will provide participants with a unique opportunity to expand their horizons and exchange their thoughts and feelings with others around the world. Wishing Box Girls all the very best for the future! Liz
Nike is a brand that promotes freedom to move and to be active through remarkable sportswear that permits ideal support maximising the efforts of each athlete and this project has many overlapping points and would even push the Nike strategy a step further exploring new projects and cross cultural athletic cooperation.
self consciousness and the feeling of security in your own body and mind are important elements for social communication and respectful compromise - or maybe we could call it tolerance or acceptance - that social life requires.
democracy is a good utopia! in its application it shows us the barriers that the individual imposes on the theory and these barriers often don't come from our imagination but from the problems we have applying theoretical concepts
--> to just name some examples: fairness, modesty and good analysis of different situations in life!
never ending anarchy of possible situations are maybe what make the application of our concepts so difficult: they are more complex than the schematic representation of reality allow. down with dichotomy!
on both the individual and the societal level the empowerment of the individual is important. the empowerment of girls is an important step to self confidence and personal stability and a better representation of the real composition of society.
that is what makes this project worth being supported by Nike! the project has a triple impact. empowerment through sports works on a personal, community and worldwide level.
physical exercise is being promoted for girls and social capacities are being trained at the same time at the same times our communities are strengthened through the empowerment of girls. another political component is that some important elements out of games are really missing in our political and administrative worlds. only if these values are reinforced and interest in physical movement and our natural environment arise on an individual level they have a chance to emerge on the political agenda.
intercultural sports exchange is the key to building social, innovative bridges through sports.
Cameron said:
A big part of our mission and of Boxgirls Roadwork is to get girls and women who haven't been active in sport before active. That can be harder than just getting people to change sports but we think it is important to get more people involved. Grow the community of people who love sport, rather than just trade or steal people back and forth between various sport projects. (which happens too much)
I made this quote for a better understanding, because my last article is such a long time ago... :)
Thank's Cameron for your answer. May be it's nice to know that I expected a opinion like that from you.
And this treatment, especially with women like me, makes me feeling not to bad and coming again.
I really hope the Project will win the Price, because you seem really involved with it.
Good luck
Julia
Hi Boxgirls,
I really like your project! It's great to see how sports and especially those usualy not considered as typically "womens' sports" can provide women with selfconfidence.
We are a multicultural women soccer team in Berlin and despite of the prejudices and barriers we are confronted with through our multicultural background we also face the usual problems of women taking part in a male-dominated area - which soccer still is, as a matter of fact. So it is good to see how especially our younger players gain self-affirmation through playing on our team. I understand this is a major effect of your project, as well. And I bet, some of our players would love to train with you guys.
I really love your video-material as well. We'll be adding some on our page in a couple of days. So take a look there, if you like:
http://changemakers.net/en-us/node/4192
All the best and keep up with it!
Katharina, Al-Dersim
Dear Katharina
Thank you for your comments on boxgirls and on getting your project up on changemakers. I read your description with great interest. The Iranians also have an excellent women's boxing team and I have been thinking for a while about how we might be able to use our programme as a chance to extend intercultural understanding with other Moslem countries like yours does.
I also think our runners and boxers would love to train with your football players. I could imagine some fun training sessions where they teach each other and also we teach them together some plyometric strength training or coordination training which would be good for both of our sports.
I would like to make another offer though in my role at the Free University, we are talking with a small number of other Berlin based intercultual projects about developing a way to better gauge the impact of sports programmes for girls. It would also be good to think of ways to interest more sponsors on project based funding for european based integration projects.
Can you share a bit about how you currently measure the impact of your programme and how you could imagine growing it?
Lets talk in person soon. My contact details are on our German website www.boxgirls.de
Heather Cameron
Free University Berlin
University Challenge
I think Katharina was right when she said, that women or girls are often confronted with lots of barriers when they want to do sports, which are not typically called "womans' sports". When I told my friends that I would like to do boxing, eveyone said, I shouldn't do it 'cause it's just not a sport a woman should do. Well, are there really any sports women shouldn't or couldn't do? I guess, people who say things like that, haven't ever seen women boxing or playing soccer or what ever exept of on the TV. So I said: "Ok,
. Come along, meet the boxgirls and then tell me again what you are thinking about it." Boxing could make women more self-confident and very fit and strong. It's not only a sport men should do, it's one of the sports lots of women should try. Boxing is my choice, so the people around me have to deal with it! So girls, read about the projects here women started for other women all over the world and take your part in the discussions about! And don't forget: this is not a mens' world any more, you can do what ever you like to do!
Janine
Hey,
everyone talks about this project and now I ve read more about it I have to say it s great!!!!!
Giving girls and women more self confidence through sport should be a worldwide movement.
I guess boxing is a special experience for almost everyone, it is more about respect and technic than most peole think. But for women it is special anyway. Everytime a new woman starts boxing in our club and she is doing an excercise with me I can see the delevelopment- not only a technical one. There is also a development in our heads: do I wanna heart someone, do I have enough power, ups, I do a lot of power but how to use it...?
For me it was more about learning to trust my body and my mind (!) when it comes to the limit and not to give up too early. Running, sprint up hills inbetween, doing shadow boxing, etc- you have to learn that your body can go further than you think.
But what it was really touching when I saw young girls doing their first punches. I joined some workshops the boxgirls did with really young girls. I could see how shy they are in the beginning and how this changes after every punch they do. In the end you see this special fire in their eyes which says: "wow, thats me who is strong"!
So, lets run and rock the world.
All the best from Berlin,
River
Dear Heather,
Working as a project director for a foundation, I am deeply interested in social innovations and franchising, especially, when they seem so well-developed and easy to implement. I am intrigued by the quality of discussion you have been able to mount here on this website.
My special interest goes to the Kenyan part of the project. Kenya is such a runners' country and it seems like a wonderful idea to add boxing to this. I am glad to hear that no one from the Boxgirls project has been hurt (at least so far) in the current political turmoil. Under these difficult conditions the proposed project is needed more than ever: Girls running around in neighborhoods that have a reputation for being unsafe - what an empowering idea! It will bring increased self-confidence for the girls, fun, hopefully changing stereotypes about what girls and women do and do not do and may actually end up making these neighborhood safer places.
I would however be interested to learn more about the challenges you see ahead in implementing the project in a - for the moment - conflict ridden society: What needs to be taken into account regarding recruiting of girls, trainers, the location of the project, communications on the project...
Thanks,
Gunilla
PS: I also love to run myself. This is my personal reason for considering this a cool project!
Hi all,
I´ve found an interesting article by the German Goethe Institute on Boxgirls and attached it in pdf format.
Click at the bottom of this page or see here:
http://www.changemakers.net/files/Boxgirls_Goethe.pdf
Heather Cameron
Free University Berlin
University Challenge
Thanks for your emails and concern.
We were able to get in touch with one of the project managers in Nairobi - Alfred "Priest" Anjere - who has been forced out of his one room flat in the Eastlands and has gone with many others normally living in the Eastlands to the outside of the city because of the fires, police violence and unrest.
Nairobi itself was shut down by a police cordon and banks and stores were closed. Food is unavailable and many people are afraid for their lives with the recent church burnings and shootings in Kibera and other very densely packed "slum" areas. No one from the Boxgirls Eastlands project has been hurt and Priest hopes it stays that way until the parties manage to deescalate the situation.
It shows again how important community activities are for divided groups, so that there are people who know and trust one another through common work and goals. It also shows how important it is for women and girls to know how to take care of themselves and their communities in times of violence and instability.
We will continue to keep the rest of the CM community informed and hope for a rapid return to security and the achievement of an election that clearly reflects the will of the Kenyan people.
With best wishes for a safe and peaceful 2008
hc
Heather Cameron
Free University Berlin
University Challenge
Hi,
since I´ve noted the great film material here (and I know that you are interested in film making yourself, Cameron), I thought you might be interested in the budding discussing on sports and filming in general that Ziba started in connection with some of the UK dance projects. I have commented on that here:
http://www.changemakers.net/en-us/node/4004#comment-3232
Jasper Nicolaisen
Free University Berlin
University Challenge
Dear Jasper
I have also been following the discussion around video and dance with some of the cool new UK Dance projects which are up and the discussions with Chris from Insight around using video to reach new audiences, reach new content and basically portray the sport differently. We do a lot of videos at Boxgirls and they are fun for the girls to learn about making videos because otherwise they are often just the object of them. Without going too much into psychoanalytic theories of the male gaze it is important to remember that girls can learn a lot about themselves by portraying themselves on their own terms and not by the view of others. We use video to advertise ourselves, to document (potential) opponents, to diagnose training successes and current technical skills and to be part of a larger discussion around girls and sport in the community, in academe and in the media.
In terms of an income strategy as Ziba suggests for other dance projects, I have thought about it and not just in the sense of how to training videos -- which are more and more available as members only websites and the like for more popular sports or conditioning like weightlifting -- but as a way to build the look of our brand and to do away with the stereotypes of running being boring and boxing being violent and women being unexpert. Having expert women running and boxing coaches showing exciting running and boxing workouts help us not earn money necessarily, but we could mock up a business model, but to reach other outreach goals we have.
Heather Cameron
Free University Berlin
University Challenge