British Council has been working with the SPIN team in Estonia for the last three years, building a programme that helps Estonian and Russian speaking youth to learn valuable social skills via the medium of sports. SPIN is based on the UK youth sports programme Kickz.
Today, there are active SPIN groups in Tallinn, Tartu, Rakvere, Kohtla-Järve and Narva, engaging over 550 young people, with extra focus on disadvantaged areas. A SPIN programme participant has to take part of three sessions each week – two focussed on football and the third on a number of other skills. Each session lasts 1.5 hours.
The impact study of seasons 2015 to 2017 showed that SPIN has a significant impact on the pro-social attitudes of the youth that participated actively in the programme, helping them to improve self-control skills, build willingness to take reasonable risks and hold back impulsive responses, improving their behaviour in school as well as academic achievement.
SPIN is built around three key messages:
- Be active! At the centre of SPIN, there’s sport – but being active and entrepreneurial is important throughout life, so it is in the hands of each of us to shape the world around us.
- Be open! We want to develop and change constantly, and to gain more impact, so we are open to people, ideas, solutions and also balanced critique.
- Care! We believe everyone has the potential to be a caring citizen. Our goal is to bring out the best in the boys and girls who participate in the SPIN programme – and we’ll be caring, attentive and encouraging in the process!
Recently, our SPIN programme was one of just 20 programmes for children across the world to receive the UEFA Foundation for Children Award.
SPIN is open to 10 to 18 year old boys and girls from Lasnamäe and Põhja-Tallinna, Kohtla-Järve, Narva, Tartu and Rakvere. Previous football skills are not necessary and the programme is free for participants!