In brief

Breaking Grounds – Sozialer Wandel durch Sport, formerly Kicken ohne Grenzen, coaches adolescents in various teams from various nations in weekly training units and sessions. The initiative aims to support young people in developing soft-skills like self-confidence, teamwork, leadership skills or resilience, which help the beneficiaries to get access to the educational system or to find a job.

With a continued support, The SOL Foundation contributes towards a further improved programme with the projects Job Goals, the Youth Leader Academy and the Girls Cup Vienna.

Problem to be tackled

In Austria, social background determines a person’s educational and professional career. The risk of young people with a history of migration and flight being without work and training for a long period of time is therefore more than double that for young people with no experience of migration, for example. Dropping out of education early often leads to a lack of self-confidence and major motivational problems, and consequently to a strong sense of having neither direction nor prospects and to radicalisation and delinquency. Social uncertainty, traumatising experiences and withdrawal ensure that many of the young people affected are now only more difficult to reach through traditional educational offers, and that social participation becomes increasingly difficult.

Local partner

Breaking Grounds, as a registered Non-Governmental Organisation, provides a platform that is using the integrative power of football to enable disadvantaged people to grow into society and actively create their future. The initiative is supporting people of every cultural background in finding opportunities to participate in all aspects of Austrian society – covering mainly the areas personal development, social integration and team building, gender equality, education and training as well as youth leadership.

Beneficiaries

The project focuses on refugees,  50% boys and 50% girls, aged ten to 25 years, and their ‘mission’ to (re-)enter into the education system or start working towards a normal life or a career.

SOL’s contribution

With the continued support of The SOL Foundation, Breaking Grounds will be able to further grow, improve and implement the programme and specifically the projects Job Goals, the Youth Leader Academy and the Girls Cup Vienna.

Project partner

Breaking Grounds is a football project in Vienna/Austria with the mission to use the unifying power of football to enable young people from disadvantaged communities to participate in society – sustainably and on an equal basis. Football serves as a tool and a common language, making it easier to put the content taught into practice and to use it in everyday life.

Open, free football-training sessions in different neighbourhoods and at schools that have increased support requirements serve as the initial landing point and safe space where young people feel they belong and are valued. In the training sessions, they not only learn how to play football but above all discover their strengths and potentials, and it is on this basis that Breaking Grounds provides programmes that facilitate the transition from school to work life and prepare the young people for a world that is changing at an ever-increasing rate.