[UK] Footballing anti-racism project rolled out across UK
Friday 5 Mar 2010
An anti-racism football project which was piloted at Burnley FC is now being rolled out across the UK.
Derby County FC and Millwall FC are following in the footsteps of the Clarets to promote anti-racism and multi-cultural education through football for local school children.
The SCARF project was launched in Burnley back in 2003 in a bid to develop and deliver anti-racism education within the citizenship curriculum in schools between five to 16-year-olds.
SCARF, which stands for schools, citizenship, anti racism and football, has been hailed as a great success in Burnley, with youngsters from different ethnic backgrounds remaining friends since being introduced seven years ago.
Louise Spencer MBA, head of the Community Sports Trust in Burnley, said: “SCARF was originally piloted at Burnley Football Club to try and address the perceptions on racism. Using football as the medium to address this it proved extremely successful.
“The majority of the schools in Burnley and Pendle have at some stage been part of the delivery process and our statistics have demonstrated that through the programme their understanding has drastically improved.
“Burnley are now looking at developing SCARF further and looking incorporate enterprise activities so that community cohesion and business to business activities are an integral part of the communities developing.”
Towns with established professional football clubs and a substantial local Asian community are using the game to prevent racial tension within the town, organisers said.
SCARF is based on the notion that pupils develop opinions as a result of their environment are heavily influenced by their peers.
The project challenges any pre-conceived ideas or negative views by alerting youngsters to the consequences of racist attitudes.
From The Lancashire Telegraph
Kick It Out on Twitter
Follow Kick It Out on Twitter to ensure you're aware of all the latest updates and information.
Research Partner
Kick It Out is seeking to appoint a research partner to help monitor and evaluate our new Mentoring and Leadership project.
Ronaldinho
"Discrimination cannot continue. We have to try and abolish these things from football."
Ronaldinho, AC Milan and Brazil