What we do?
Today's global crises and the failure of global leadership has led to the need for a NEW Way of Thinking, NEW Set of Skills and NEW Definition of Leader. We enable children to become leaders through football, music and LEGO programs, developing essential life skills, as recognized by the UN SDG #4. Our leaders will go on to become responsible and employable adults driving change to solve 21st century problems in school, at home and in communities.
Our unique leadership framework underpins each of our programs and is developed on 3 traits each of which breaks down into 3 life skills and associated learning outcomes.
1. Strong Belief Systems
- Belief in Self
- Belief in Others
- Belief in Principles & Values
2. Excellent Problem Solving Skills
- Creative Thinking
- Critical Thinking
- Bias to Action
3. Keen Sense of Awareness and Responsibility
- For Self
- For Community
- For the World
Outreach
We work with nearly 6,150 children in 185 low-income schools in 8 locations in urban (Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad) and rural India (Dharwad, Kumta), and 1 international location in rural Cambodia (Battambang). Our goal is to reach one million children by 2030, to be able to create meaningful impact. A gender balance of 50% girls to 50% boys is carefully maintained, across all our programs and locations.
Why we do it?
110+ million out of 250 million children are enrolled in government schools, where they do not have access to develop essential life skills - problem solving, communication, collaboration, and value systems. This critical gap in the education system poses a continuing threat to our society, one in which poverty, conflict, gender inequity and unemployment continue to add to the complexity of the growing global crises. With the COVID-19 pandemic, it becomes all the more essential to develop life skills to deal with the crisis effectively.
Leader
Today's leaders need to be positive contributors - people that have a keen awareness of themselves and their communities. People who take responsibility to benefit others and solve problems (or) overcome challenges through critical thinking, collaboration and creativity. Today's leaders also need to be role models - people that display a strong belief, positive outlook, and trust in themselves, in others, and in principles and values that uplift society. Our role models also need to have a bias to action, taking initiative and setting a positive example for others to follow. And finally, in the interconnected world that we live in (as COVID-19 has shown), our leaders need to be global citizens - people who have a keen awareness of the world and take responsibility for the benefit of the planet, environment, and all its inhabitants.
About Just For Kicks
Just For Kicks (JFK) leverages the power of football to hone critical life skills and enables children from under-resourced schools to carry their leadership learnings from the team sport into real-life situations and challenges. Through the program, children work together as teams to learn communication, collaboration, grit and resilience, as well as football techniques. Each batch group consists of 10 girls and 10 boys who learn together also participate in Just For Kicks regional leagues and a national championship. The program is functional in around 140 schools impacting 4790 children in Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, 13 villages in Dharwad and 7 villages in Kumta as of 2019-20.
About Music Basti
Music Basti enables children to tell the stories of their dreams and communities through music. In 2019-20, Music Basti worked with over 1210 students from 32 government and low-income schools in the cities of Delhi, Pune, Bengaluru and 12 villages in Dharwad, Karnataka. The program includes a combination of musical training, song writing and performances, culminating in an annual public concert - a public performance for all the program’s students and their well-wishers.
About Build Maya
Build Maya is our group based program developed around the concept of Play and human centered design thinking, which enables children to re-imagine their communities and their own future using LEGO as a medium. Through its unique teaching methods, the program trains children in design fundamentals, creating prototype models by being part of design challenges and presentations while developing essential leadership skills and also showcasing their skills at the mid-year and end of year showcases. The program reached 180 children in 8 schools across 4 villages in Dharwad and Pune in 2019-20.
Our Model
Each year, the program includes 40-48 sessions delivered by trained coaches/ teachers, who conduct 60-90 minute sessions twice a week for each batch. A batch consists of 20 children (2 football teams/ 1 Music Band/ 1 LEGO Group). Hence our teacher to children ratio is 1:20. The program curriculum and pedagogy use active learning principles and tools such as journaling, reflections and de-brief discussions for every session, equipping children to relate experiences and learnings from the classroom or playground with their real lives. Each program has a mid-year and end-year showcase or performance, which motivates children towards an outcome throughout the program.
We work on sustained school interventions involving parents, school, community and governments. We focus on breaking gender stereotypes and promoting gender mainstreaming and gender equity through a co-education group-learning model. We also focus on building resiliency, mindfulness and positive mental health practices for our children.
