The project of the Foundation for Freedom implemented thanks to a grant from the Active Citizens – National Fund Program, financed by the EEA Funds, with the support of the informal group K*AP Family and the Chrząszczyki Sports Club.
All around the world football is one of the most masculinized sport discipline and Poland is no exception. Negative phenomena such as sexism, homophobia, and transphobia are even more common than in other cultural areas. It is still a widely spread belief that football is not for women or nonheteronormative people which leads to decreased number of them playing football or being trainers, referees, managers, and experts. This belief strikes women and LGBT+ community on nearly every level: on a pitch, on bleachers, in locker rooms, on the benches, in sport clubs, football institutions, and in the media. With this project, we want to spark a change.
We address our actions to women (meaning all with the experience of functioning in society as women: ciswomen, transwomen, non-binary people, trangender, queer, transmen) in the football community. We want to increase access to football for women* by creating a safe space where they will be able to start or continue their football adventure in safe and friendly environment. We want to strengthen women’s presence in technical and decision-making positions. We want to create a tool for sports journalists – a manual of good practices – to encourage them to look at sport (and especially football) from a different than traditional and male perspective.
Our project will include several activities, divided in three parts:
1. Trainings – continuation of “Female Football Academy”, a project created by KS Chrząszczki, but in upgraded version. Within less than two years, there will be held 96 free trainings for women. They will be matched with personal skills of each individual so that every player can fully participate despite their experience, shape, or any other factor that may contribute to potential barrier. We came up with a new solution – we will split participants into two groups: beginners and advanced. The first group will focus on making it easier for women to participate in the game. Also, it will be open to complete beginners. In the second group, players will focus on football development, individual as well as group. Participation is each group will be open and voluntary. Our main value will be openness to people with different experience and origin. We organize our trainings in five two- and three-month-long cycles, in indoors halls and on the pitches.
2. UEFA Grassroots C professional training for chosen members of our projects and football teams (K*AP, Chrząszczyki, and Etnoliga) and antidiscrimination workshops for trainers and P.E. teachers. We will strengthen sport and antidiscrimination competences both theoretically and practically by giving them tools for conducting their own inclusive trainings. We will create an opportunity for them to be the leaders of change.
3. Media – we will create a brochure “Standards of speaking and writing about women and LGBTQIA community in sport.” It will be both an invitation for journalist to reflect on their professional practice and a tool for sportsman and sportswomen and their allays to demand a change in the narration of female sport and LGBT community in the media.
We will present the outcomes and summary of the project during a conference which will be held when the project will be finished.
Wszystkie działania odbędą się w Warszawie i okolicach między All activities will be held in Warsaw approximately between March 2021 and October 2022. Any activities and events will be announced on our social media.
(*) All people with experience of functioning as a woman in society.