In the framework of this ephemeris we combine our activities with games and special events, taking into account the value of sports to empower the lives of children and adolescents.

Our objective is to maximize the efforts of each grassroot organization in their neighborhoods. For this purpose, we transfer pedagogical resources, generate and share educational games and materials, increase available sporting material and generate spaces which allow for exchanging views, plan collaborative actions and share experiences.

The purpose has been to create supportive strategies for children and adolescents through sporting activities. To this end, we developed mixed gender soccer activities and hockey for adolescent girls and boys in the neighborhood of Villa 20 y Villa Soldati, respectively. We assigned areas for meetings and recreational activities, implementing different strategies with the idea of fostering healthy habits in the participants, and implemented interventions when faced with situations related to rights violations.

• Plan and carry-out appropriate social sports activities, pertinent to their context and target population
• Contribute to the development and inclusion of children, adolescents and adults that live in their neighborhoods
• Generate transformation and change in the everyday life of the communities in which they live
  
  Their modality of intervention consists of:
  
• Intensive and planned training for the transmission of concepts and tools, concentrating attention in sports as a strategy for the promotion of social inclusion
• Participative teaching methodology, with theoretical and practical content

The purpose of this initiative was to promote the social inclusion and the full enjoyment of rights of adolescents through their participation in cultural, sporting, formative and technological activities which allows them to visualize, enrich and empower their life projects.

Within this framework, every year we organize several sports teaching modules in Las Heras Center of the Claudio Marangoni School. Each group is composed of children from 13 to 18 years of age, stemming from socially vulnerable homes and residing in the city of Buenos Aires. The teaching includes several different modules, soccer for girls and boys, hockey for girls, mixed gender volleyball, handball, basketball, swimming, tennis and boxing.

The sporting activities are complemented with extracurricular events, which include games, workshops, forums for reflection led by social workers to promote rights, respond to issues and situations which are important to teenagers.

The aim of the intervention approach adopted was to empower and strengthen capacities for the definition of priorities and needs,  identify  viable action alternatives for the resolution of problems, design and execute  programs and projects and evaluate achievements and difficulties. Other goals established were to articulate and implement alliances with other social actors and public institutions to circumvent challenges, and set up mechanisms that will be helpful to expand the potential and scale of such organizations.

We concentrated our attention in the reinforcing of six grassroots organizations in the Cildañez, Bajo Flores, Piletones, Lugano, Villa 20 and Bajo Flores neighborhoods through the training of their representatives and workshop leaders and the development of entertaining pedagogical courses for children and adolescents.

Utilizing an attractive field with inclusion characteristics, we generated a weekly schedule of social sports for the whole neighborhood, including entertaining sporting events and physical activities. The key component of this process was its participatory methodology, giving the neighborhood residents and local institutions the possibility of choosing their favorite activities and when to participate. The collaboration with local institutions was fundamental in the implementation of this initiative. We would specially like to mention Escuela No.19 D.E.19 “José Martí”, Escuela Especial No.7 D.E.19 “Juan XXIII”, CESAC-Barrio Carrillo, Hogar de Cristo “Juan Pablo II”, Jardín Maternal Nro.15 del D.E. 19, Escuela Infantil Nro. 4 del D.E. 19, Centro Educativo Ramón Carrillo (Educational Support Center), Parroquia Virgen Inmaculada and the two centers for early education, Barrio Carillo neighborhood.

The proposal was based on a formative type of league, as a key component of a more extensive teaching process, and also a means to:

• Communicate values
• Incorporate social tools
• Incorporate good habits
• Develop bonds
• Generate a feeling of belonging

We worked together with the Ministry of Social Development of the Province of Buenos Aires with the purpose of improving the quality of life of the young people living in seven Centers of the Province of Buenos Aires, under the supervision of the Undersecretary of Juvenile Justice and established within the realm of the Nueva Esperanza Complex (Abasto, La Plata): Centros Cerrado C.O.P.A., Centro Cerrado Carlos Ibarra, Centro Cerrado El Castillito,  Centro Cerrado Francisco Legarra, Centro Cerrado y de Contención Eva Perón, Centro de Contención Agustín B. Gambier and Centro Cerrado Pellegrini.

To that end we organized and equipped a gym located in an easy to reach area for all the centers.

Once the young people got familiarized with the center, they began using the gym on a daily basis. We developed proposals and group and individual plans on the basis of different training objectives: abdominal, legs, arms workouts, flexibility and aerobic resistance. We reinforced this physical training with another action plan related to values. Respect, care of the materials and the actual space, motivation, improvement attitude were some of the concepts discussed in this cross-disciplinary approach during the span of the project.