Investing in the future
The Youth Sport Initiative (YSI) mobilises the power of sport for youth education and development in rural communities in the Western Cape. The team of Stellenbosch University’s Sport Performance Institute (SUSPI), headed by CEO Ms Gugu Ntuli, is in charge of the YSI and as such also the main driver of the progress of a state-of-the-art Football Centre and the implementation of a new Football Academy in Stellenbosch.
The YSI comprises an After School Programme and an Outreach Programme – together reaching more than 500 children out of 18 Cape Winelands Primay Schools, based around greater Stellenbosch.
The After School Programme offers a holistic approach for youth development and education, catering as it does to the involved children for three hours every Monday to Thursday. Its four main pillars are academic support (with homework and exam preparation), age appropriate life skills education, sport counts (using sport activities to improve numeracy and listening skills) and football skills training. These children (between 9 and 12 years old) get one proper meal per day and transport from their schools and back is also arranged.
The second leg of the YSI, the Outreach Programme, focuses on assisting scholars within their primary school environments. It identifies and trains volunteer coaches, teenagers and young adults, who then go to schools and assist the children with life skills education through fun- and sport-based activities.
The YSI also aims to establish the Stellenbosch Football Academy in order to develop young talents both physically and psychologically. Subsequently the Academy will identify and holistically develop future champions in Stellenbosch. To reach its targets the Academy will partner with professional football clubs – local and foreign – and liaise with educational experts from Stellenbosch University.
Stellenbosch Lentelus Football Centre
As part of a physical legacy of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the Stellenbosch Football Centre was constructed, with its first phase completed just before the last whistle of the 2010 FIFA World Cup had blown. Thus far a full-sized artificial grass pitch and three FIFA-approved Futsal (five-a-side football) courts were constructed at the Lentelus grounds.
This Football Centre already provides a safe yet stimulating environment for SUSPI’s YSI as well as youth from the local communities. The constructed facilities will be supplemented by phase two comprising of a full-size grass pitch, a full pavilion, upgraded changing facilities and a schooling-/conference centre.