Young people from Donegal and the border counties will unite through their love of the ‘beautiful game’ thanks to the Rio Ferdinand Foundation (RFF).
The exciting new €628,850 partnership will be run in conjunction with the International Fund for Ireland (IFI). In one of the IFI’s largest funding allocations in recent years, ‘Beyond the Ball’ will connect young people and promote cross-community reconciliation efforts through sport, building trust and confidence between communities at a grassroots level.
The partnership will be funded through the IFI’s Communities in Partnership Programme (CiPP), with young people from across Donegal, Leitrim, Louth, Sligo, Antrim, Omagh, Fermanagh, and Derry getting involved.
This investment includes a successful one-year pilot between the IFI and RFF in 2022 which initially focused on building meaningful cross-border relationships between young people in Leitrim and Fermanagh and will now be extended out to eight counties over the next two years.
The partnership officially launched this week as part of a four-day trip to Manchester, supported by the Rio Ferdinand Foundation. Twelve participants experienced the famous football heritage of the city as well as engaged with other young people involved in similar programmes in the Northwest of England.
As part of the visit, officers from the An Garda Síochána and PSNI will play a central role in this project, joining the young people and participating in a range of activities and workshops with their peers, built around the themes of friendship, understanding and leadership.
Donegal man, Paddy Harte, is Chair of the International Fund for Ireland.
“Sport undoubtedly has the power to bring people and communities together,” Mr Harte said.
“It can transform people’s lives, broadening their horizons and providing opportunities to develop friendships that they would not otherwise have been able to do. Sport makes it possible to have friends in even the most difficult times, and particularly for young people who get the chance to develop friendships across social and economic divides.”
Young people will also have a formal voice on areas relating to their local communities and cross- border relations, participating in a youth advisory board which will include mentoring support directly from their peers – Rio Ferdinand Youth Ambassadors.
Speaking at the launch event, Carina O’Brien, Vice Consul, Consulate General of Ireland, Manchester said: “The Beyond the Ball project is a special cross border initiative and is not only important in terms of relationship building between north and south, but also in terms of the east-west relationship between our two islands and our peoples which has endured for so long.”
The key element of this partnership, which stands out from many others, is this focus on relationship building and learning on an East West basis, aimed at exploring shared identities through the medium of football in Manchester and London. This will include providing a platform for girls and young women who have been through RFF projects in England to link with young women from the Southern Border Counties and Northern Ireland, building relationships on a north-south and east-west basis.
Gary Stannett, Chief Executive Officer, from the Rio Ferdinand Foundation said,
“We are proud that the International Fund for Ireland has seen to invest in our programme at this level, this partnership that will drive transformational change and represents a significant step for the Rio Ferdinand Foundation and the reach and scope of our work on the island of Ireland.”
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