Good Practice Criteria
Inclusivity & Participation
Does the practice ensure that its services are accessible and responsive to diverse groups?
In the beginning Kicken ohne Grenzen was designed as a project for refugees. Today, the organisation appeals to teenagers and young adults from diverse backgrounds, including refugees, other migrants, and Austrians. Now counting several former participants as employees, it holds weekly open training sessions for girls and boys, working to empower girls through additional individual training sessions in swimming and cycling. To encourage engagement it conducts outreach among teenagers in schools and via NGOs, offers flexible hours to accommodate for school schedules, and provides a “pick-up from school” transportation service to ensure younger children can reach the training. |
Inspiring tools:
The project has a useful webpage available in both German and English.
Good practice checklist
✓ Adopt a participatory, gender mainstreaming, age sensitive, inclusive approach and secure equal opportunities for beneficiaries.
✓ Make sure to provide precise and accessible information on how to access services in different languages, formats and through different communication channels
✓ Ensure that equality and diversity are an essential part of how services are delivered, taking into consideration different needs and capacities.
✓ Make reasonable adjustments to service delivery in order to take into account particular needs of the target group.
Does the practice involve the active participation of the receiving society?
Specific projects are designed via cooperation with both the local community and participants, and everyone is free to participate equally. While at the beginning the project was run solely by volunteers, it now also has paid employees. The receiving society is also involved through the project’s cooperation with schools and local businesses (which offer employment support and experience to participants). |
Good practice checklist
✓ Consider integration as a two-way process, and aim for change on the side of the receiving society.
✓ Foresee an active role for the receiving society in the design and implementation stages of the practice, and involve actions that encourage native communities and beneficiaries to work together.
Does the practice consult its beneficiaries and involve them in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the action?
Participants are actively involved in implementation and evaluation. This includes, for example, co-creation of the annual ‘Girls Cup Vienna’, and responding to regular participant surveys and analyses. The project also runs a youth leader academy which trains young people to become peer mentors and soft-skills coaches in the sports sector, and these young people are then able to provide better-informed feedback. Football coaches and those providing educational support and translation services are compensated for their time. |
Good practice checklist
✓ Organise consultation activities with migrant beneficiaries in order to co-create actions where possible and secure their feedback on the design and evaluation of the action.
✓ Provide appropriate feedback mechanisms by which beneficiaries can safely express their opinions on service quality.
✓ Use flexible and interculturally-adapted formats and compensate participants for their contribution.
Relevance & Complementarity
Are the objectives of the practice relevant to the needs of the migrants?
The practice ensures its relevancy to the needs of migrants through regular assessment and impact measurement via participant feedback, and exchanges with relevant NGOs and school authorities. The project harnesses the unifying power of football to promote and facilitate the social involvement of young people from disadvantaged communities, empowering in particular migrant girls to engage more readily in the use of public space (such as football cages). |
Good practice checklist
✓ Identify and analyse the needs of the relevant migrants and prioritise methods which directly ask them about their needs.
✓ Identify and analyse gaps in integration support and design actions to fill these gaps.
✓ Aim for systemic improvement, satisfying the needs of the majority of target groups in the target area.
Is the practice relevant to the empowerment of migrants, the strengthening of their autonomy and the support of their long-term integration?
The empowerment of young adults, especially migrants and girls, and promotion of inclusivity and equality are the main objectives of the project. The football training sessions foster self-confidence and leadership skills, encourage girls to make us of public spaces, and facilitate engagement with the local community. Involvement in the project is free, which further facilitates involvement on the part of migrants, who are often underrepresented in such sporting activities due to financial and other barriers. As well as sporting activities the project runs a ‘learning café’ and group workshops on topics including CV and job application creation and labour laws, and offers employment experience in conjuction with local businesses. |
Good practice checklist
✓ Devise actions with the overarching goal of providing positive feedback and making migrants more confident, autonomous and independent.
✓ Contribute to migrants’ engagement with the community for the common good.
✓ Contribute to migrants’ engagement with the community for the common good.
✓ Include (or create the preconditions for) actions that facilitate long-term integration.
✓ Address discrimination and information gaps as obstacles to long-term integration.
Does the practice align with the priorities, strategic goals and policies of other relevant stakeholders, and contribute to the wider integration framework?
The project is an active promoter of children´s rights and opportunities. It seeks to strengthen children´s rights in football at both the national and international level, ensuring that team members are educated in child protection, participation, and gender and diversity, and that they focus on these themes when developing new guidelines and activities. All trainers, employees, partners and visitors must comply with the project’s child protection policy, as well as the Sustainable Development Goals. |
Inspiring tools:
A handbook with recommendations for policy implementation.
Good practice checklist
✓ Ensure that all actions are in line with international and European human rights standards.
✓ Employ regional/local, national and EU/international level integration-related guidelines and tools.
✓ Make sure that the services offered contribute to the strengthening of the capacities of relevant institutions to support future development.
Effectiveness
Is the practice adequately planned and based on a comprehensive design?
The practice is adequately planned and based on a comprehensive design, the project webpage is informative and the social report is exemplary in its presentation of project planning and outcomes. At the individual level the project empowers participants, increases their self-confidence, and reduces school dropout rates. At the community/institutional level, the project increases gender equality and inclusivity, promotes collaboration between schools and locals, and fosters awareness of the benefits of a healthy lifestyle. The practice is based on specific and measurable indicators, and is evaluated and monitored regularly (e.g., according to number of participants, percentage of female participants, and success of trainings, tournaments, and workshops). The organisation is run cooperatively, with employees assuming different roles within the project according to experience and interest. |
Good practice checklist
✓ Aim for actions that achieve observable outcomes among the target group or contribute to changes during the implementation of the action.
✓ Make sure that the objectives and planned results of the activity are feasible and clear.
✓ Develop a communications strategy during the design phase of the action and pay attention to communication with host communities and local authorities.
− Develop a staff management plan to identify team members with the right skills to work with beneficiaries, and their needs for training and further qualification.
Does the practice regularly monitor implementation and evaluate its results?
Evaluation of the project takes place regularly, and is published both on the website and in the annual social report alongside relevant financial data. Achievement of intended outcomes is measured via both a survey distributed among teachers and participant feedback. Proof of its success can also be found in its securing of new funders and supporters. |
Inspiring tools:
The project developed a toolkit on developing the future prospects of participants.
Good practice checklist
✓ Ensure regular monitoring of action implementation and compare actual performance to goals set during the design phase.
− Anticipate obstacles that might occur and plan alternative scenarios during the design phase of the action.
✓ Ensure achievement of intended outputs / outcomes.
✓ Determine whether practice outcomes are considered successful by beneficiaries, the host and practitioner communities, funders, and policymakers.
− Assess whether interventions contribute to long-term sustainable change.
Sustainability
Is the practice prepared to sustain its positive effects after completion?
Kicken ohne Grenzen is well established and has the funding and plans in place to continue its projects for at least another three years. It attracts sponsors and has established sustainable cooperation between stakeholders (NGOs, schools, and football players, for example). Furthermore, sustainability of the activities is secured through the training of former participants in coaching, and their eventual hiring within the project.
Good practice checklist
✓ During the design phase, anticipate opportunities to continue the intervention after completion.
✓ Prepare and apply a well-defined sustainability plan to ensure the continuation of positive effects / outcomes.
✓ Devote resources to building capacities during the implementation phase, in order to ensure that the necessary human resources, expertise and infrastructure are in place to sustain the services upon completion of the action.
Does the practice attract structural funding and support from new sponsors and individuals, or have the potential to develop a business model to generate its own resources?
Kicken ohne Grenzen is funded by donations, foundations and public funds, including the sports division of the Austrian federal ministry. It has developed partnerships with various foundations, and receives donations from professional football players. |
Good practice checklist
✓ Develop partnerships and relations with relevant stakeholders at the early stage of the action to ensure that the practice has strong support and potential partners for after the primary funding terminates.
✓ Identify new EU and national funding opportunities for long-term integration (e.g., shifting from project-based initiatives that are limited in time or dependent on one (external) donor to a comprehensive, multi-year strategy based on secured funding or diverse funding opportunities).
✓ Diversify funding opportunities and identify options for self-financing through business activities or social entrepreneurship.
Partnership & Collaboration
Does the practice establish communication and coordination with other relevant actors to foster the integration of migrants? (e.g., migrants, civil society, public authorities, businesses)
Kicken ohne Grenzen collaborates closely with schools, NGOs, and football professionals, and some of its projects also involve local businesses and international stakeholders. Its partners include Teach For Austria, FARE (Football Against Racism in Europe) and the streetfootballworld network. |
Good practice checklist
✓ Ensure the involvement and participation of key stakeholders in the development phase and create strategies to involve them in the action.
✓ Include multi-stakeholder consultation with professionals, institutions, and citizens, in order to promote the meaningful participation of refuges and migrants and support a joint sense of ownership of decisions and actions.
Does the practice contribute to discussion on the improvement of integration support policies?
Good practice checklist
✓ Seize opportunities to contribute to the development of comprehensive integration strategies involving EU-level/national/regional/local authorities, service providers and civil society.
✓ Work with relevant partners to jointly review operations, practices, services, and integration outcomes.