Hi Itong,

since Boxgirls now has a theory of change statement up
http://www.changemakers.net/en-us/node/2279#comment-3571

I would love to hear from you about the assumptions that you make on how your program activities influence your participants and what your are doing in order to reach what goals. I have posted about my interest and some outside resources more extensively here at Al-Dersimspor (fellow Berliners, by the way :) )

http://changemakers.net/en-us/node/4193#comment-3574

Jasper Nicolaisen
Free University Berlin
University Challenge

Hi Itong,

Thanks for your post. Your Leyla Rennt program seems to have stimulated some really good discussion about gender and sport and some of the hurdles and barriers that your program and other women sport initiatives are trying to combat.

I really like your program showcasing women's participation in sport in local communities and there are similar community festival concepts in Australia (though I don't know of any that specifically target women and girls).

I'd like to know your view of female role models. Do you try to have predominantly female coaches at the festivals and other events?

In my work with developing wheelchair basketball in Australia, the young women really benefited from regular contact with successful role models. Do you invite local/national or international female athletes to the festivals or do you see a potential in your program to include this angle?

I'm quite new to Berlin but am currently living in Kreutzberg and would love to get involved with this project. Maybe we can work together to add some activities specfically targeted towards including girls and women with a disability.

I look forward to hearing from you,

Best regards,
Jackie

Jackie Lauff
Free University Berlin
University Challenge

Kevin Carroll
Changemakers Featured Commentator
Sport for a Better World Competition
i think the creators of leyla rennt, boxgirls, and similar progammes are playing the role of human catalyst or change agent for girls. just like in chemistry a catalyst is an excitatory agent that impacts a process or reaction - you are doing it on a human scale. the catalyst provides a certain amount of it's properties to alter or change a process. who's to say how much your programme impacts the young girls lives directly but, i would ask what if you're NOT there to behave like a catalyst? i think that's a good question to ponder.

i believe that all of us who decide to behave as a change agent are going to impact lives on some level. sure, it's great to be able to provide "measureable" outcomes for growth/funding support to do more work but, maybe it's also enough to simply be the provocateur for change on some level in a life?

the email response from cameron about boxgirls is right on the mark: it's EMPOWERMENT & OPPORTUNITY
by bringing a big group of girls together... (rather than being shy as only girl in a sport group)
by removing the boys and the gender specific peer pressure... (rather than needing to conform, be quiet)
by adding sports the girls might not know so it is new to everyone and no one has a natural advantage
by giving girls lots of attention and priority (rather than often feeling ignored)

that the girls
...participate rather than watch
...get to be more free in their actions than at school or in their families and so enjoy themselves
... learn about sports which might be more fun and interesting than (excuse me) just football or the main sports which are always offered
... see how it is fun to be part of a group

i applaud all of your efforts and i hope that others realize that a "successful" programme using sport to empower others may not always be measureable in a "clinical" manner.

Although it was clear to me, of course, that the title of your program is in reference to the highly successful German movie "Run Lola Run", I used to think you only picked it because it´s cool, it´s set in Berlin and allowed to replace "Leyla" for "Lola" to point to the mulitcultural approach. Thinking about the movie again, which I haven´t seen in a long time also made me aware that it deals with how small decisions that the cool and smart girl protagonist makes can change her whole life - just like the girls in this project can take their lives into their own hands. Thanks for making me see that about the movie, though I have no idea whether that played into your choice of name :). For those not familiar with the movie, read all about it here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Run_Lola_Run.
It was an international success and should also be available in most English speaking countries.

Jasper Nicolaisen
Free University Berlin
University Challenge

Who is your main target audience and how do you reach out to them?
How do you connect your large events with neighborhood events?

I look forward to hearing from you.
Dana Frasz
Changemakers

Good questions Jasper
How do we know if what we do has any effect? And if we see effects how can we claim that what we did, in an hour of boxing training or in a great experience at a girls sports fest has anything to do with it?

I think many of us are used to giving good anecdotes but not really thinking about what it is that we think we do exactly, or that we allow to happen in a protected space, that causes changes in the children and youth we work with. I do not even think it makes sense to talk about causes or "we do this and then this happens" type arguments because so many people are intervening in thse skids lives how can we know who is reponsible for what.

I think though that it would be intersting for more of us to be explicit about our theories of change. So here is the question for Itong and others... What is it that you think is happening in your project that causes good results. WHat is the logic behind it? I could imagine something like:

by bringing a big group of girls together... (rather than being shy as only girl in a sport group)
by removing the boys and the gender specific peer pressure... (rather than needing to conform, be quiet)
by adding sports the girls might not know so it is new to everyone and no one has a natural advantage
by giving girls lots of attention and priority (rather than often feeling ignored)

that the girls
...participate rather than watch
...get to be more free in their actions than at school or in their families and so enjoy themselves
... learn about sports which might be more fun and interesting than (excuse me) just football or the main sports which are always offered
... see how it is fun to be part of a group

so basically the idea is that if they have a good experience at Leyla rennt they will be more likely to seek out a regular sport experience because they have learned what they get in school is not what is out there.

It is a marketing action to move girls into more regular sport where further change can take place.

On the other hand, while Leyla Rennt cannot make claims to changing girls lives through a sport intervention, by changing the sportspolitical landscape in Berlin through such a successful slowly high profile event - Leyla Rennt creates the infrastructure needed - good aware coaches, sports clubs who can appeal to girls, politicians who see success and help, press people who now have girls sports experts on their rolodex... all of these things are the sustainable structure which will appeal to more and more girls.

The next question will be ... how to turn the event into regular habits... that is a hard one which Itong has started to answer but I would love to hear more on.

Heather Cameron
Boxgirls
Free University Berlin

Hi,

coming from Berlin myself, I think I can imagine some of the obstacles that you must be facing in your work. Thumbs up for for a multicultural initiative that makes mulit-culturalism a lived reality rather than just a high-sounding idea for sunday speeches! I´d be interested in how being involved with leyla rennt has had an impact on girls´lives outside of sports. Do you know about girls who have started to take a different approach to family problems or life at school? How would you estimate the degree to which your initiative spills over into other areas of life for the girls who get involved?

Best,

Jasper Nicolaisen
Free University Berlin

If I understand correctly what you've accomplished with Leyla Rennt, Itong, you've given Turkish-German girls a much-needed sports outlet where they can gain esteem and self-respect. Many of them perhaps have one foot in Turkish culture, the other in German, and they may face marginalization from both. A conservative Turkish perspective looks down on their desire to be athletes, while a mainstream German attitude may question their contributions to Germany as a whole.

If any of this is true, then bravo to you for what you've done!

Steve

Yes I think this is a challenge for a lot of projects. When we started with boxgirls we only did school events and it was hard to get people to join and come regularly to the club. we finally cracked it by having two amazing young women come in and lead the programme and get enough girls to come and to saty by paying a lot of attention to them. Once there were regularly 4 girls coming it got to 8 then 10 now almost 18. It is about getting past the tipping point.

How do you think Leyla Rennt could help more girls get into regular sport activities. WHat changes would the club need to make?

best
cameron

Boxgirls and Free University Berlin

hei Cameron, i appreciate your compliment. Thanx!

And yes - we already thought about leyla runs- and leyla rolls. I´m pretty sure, that we will work on it within the next two years.

We already got some girls helping us out with workshops from their sport- and they loved it. We need to enthuse more girls and work girls whenever there is an opportunity and put them in responsability for something what they really like to do. If they wants experiencend how much the younger girls appreciate their dedication - they do it again.
To show role models and help them to take responsability and feel comfortable with it is very important.
to do these work we need continuity in our work for years. Events help to get attention- more important is the work in networks before and after such an event to do "the real" work- be in contact and work with the girls.

We hopefully help to enthuse more girls doing sports in the future - therefore together with the girls we need to change structures in sports that they feel comfortable with them- that more and more girls like to join sportsclubs
well an ambitious aim...
Hey- thanx again itong

Hi Itong! Congrats on getting your entry up! I am glad to see so many cool girls projects in Berlin on changemakers. YOu my friend are a changemaker in our city and I have learned so much from you about working with other clubs, the local politics and schools. WIth Leyla Rennt you and your team have achieved something many did not think possible - getting a vibrant truly mixed festival for girls off the ground and sustainable.

I would like to ask a few things...

Have you thought about how to get more girls using wheelchairs involved? Who could be brought in to offer some fun activities for girls who are using mobility devices?

How can you capture the energy from these huge events to get more girls into helping run the festival and becoming school leaders?

What do you think is the legacy of Leyla Rennt? People in the Olympic and Paralympic Committees think about the legacy of their games - what is the legacy of yours?

I am looking forward to hear your answers

Cameron
Free University Berlin