SUMMARY: I SPEAK FOOTBALL
This chapter of the Refugee Sports Profile focuses on I Speak Football. “I Speak Football” is an organisation dedicated to supporting young displaced people across London, UK, and beyond. It focuses particularly in improving language skills through the medium of football. By integrating language learning, a trauma-informed approach, and football training, the program empowers participants to overcome barriers, integrate into their new communities, and pursue brighter futures. This unique combination of sports, education, and social impact offers displaced youth the tools they need to build better lives while fostering a sense of belonging and community. They operate in London and plan to expand for the rest of the UK, and Europe.
CHALLENGES
Refugees can often face barriers to accessing sessions due to mental health issues owing to their journey and their continued uncertain legal situation in UK. Refugees in the UK can face Limited support from the local community, whose services can be overstretched. This means coordination and marketing must be done sensitively.
Refugees can be allocated to different parts of the UK with only a week’s notice. This is psychologically hard for the individual and makes it hard to measure long-term impact. Difficulty in securing predictable funding to sustain and expand the program remains a challenge. Finding low-cost pitches in London is difficult in the evenings and also finding pitches with appropriate spaces to conduct classroom training sessions alongside sport is also difficult. Refugees face transportation challenges, making it difficult for them to attend training sessions.
Women participants also face challenges, which can result in low numbers of women participating, I Speak Football tries to make it a safe space, create women only hours, and is learning new strategies to attract women and girls to attend consistently and effectively.
LESSONS LEARNED
A key lesson learned by I Speak Football founder Djibril Afoye was the realization that a traditional, school-like approach to teaching English wasn’t effective for many. Initially, the formal, classroom style method felt uncomfortable and often stressful to him, it was an environment that he and other learners were not accustomed to. This prompted his desire to make the learning experience more dynamic and integrated with football, ensuring it was both tailored, enjoyable and ultimately more effective.
The Refugee Sports Profile: I Speak Football highlights that impact takes time and frequent contact to make real impact. I Speak Football is therefore focused on securing long term partners to establish regular training and language sessions. This would enable them to be more effective in supporting refugees by providing consistent, ongoing opportunities for both football practice, English language and connections.
The structure of I Speak Football focuses on three components: supporting refugees, focusing on language learning and as a football programme: This means the team must understand three markets, approaches, and methodologies not just one.
IMPACT
The primary impact remains enhancing participants’ confidence in speaking English and helping them integrate more smoothly. It now also measures mental health impact by expanding opportunities for breaking isolation and fostering connections with new friends and networks. For social cohesion impact the programme works with local communities to allow them to take part in the programmes and events.
I Speak Football continuously evaluates impact through pre- and post-program surveys, focus group discussions, and interviews or surveys with families, schools, and the broader community.
For more on refugee sports programming and how to create inclusive, impactful and sustainable projects please contact info@thesportseffect.org