How Futebol dá força works in practice
Read more about how we make
our strategy reality
The FDF process
Futebol dá força engages and enables facilitators that in turn engage and enable leaders, who implement a combination of actions to empower girls and change social norms in their local communities, resulting in change of attitudes and conditions that allow for change of behaviours to take place.
Enabling facilitators
Futebol dá força's key enablers are our facilitators that engage, train and support our voluntary leaders both on-site and online around the world. Facilitators are certified volunteers that have previously been engaged within Futebol dá força as leaders, and that then have undergone further training to become certified facilitators enabled to train and support new leaders joining our movement.

Our facilitators are engaged, trained and supported by FDF's core team, and function as the link between our core team, our leaders and other stakeholders, ensuring that our strategies and methodology is spread and implemented in local communities around the world.
Enabling leaders
Through Futebol dá força's key enablers, our facilitators, we work with our second layer of enablers: our leaders. Leaders are volunteers that want to get engaged within Futebol dá força to empower girls and change social norms in their local community, that share our values and that commit to completing our full leadership training.

Our leaders are engaged, trained and supported by FDF facilitators, and are enabled to implement action at grassroots level applying Futebol dá força's key strategies and methodology in collaboration with local stakeholders, to empower girls and change social norms in local communities.
Changing social norms
in local communities
Through Futebol dá força's second layer of key enablers, our leaders, we work within local communities through a combination of actions implementing our key strategies: empowering girls and changing social norms in local communities. To empower girls, conditions that allow for girls to exercise their rights, agency and choice need to be in place, in order for action towards girls' empowerment to have long term impact.

Therefore, our leaders work with involving the local community, to engage them in our work towards empowering girls. This is done by building relationships and trust with girls' family members and others in the local community based on the principle of openness, allowing for non-judgmental communication and behaviour, and the belief in the good intentions of girls' families and others in their local communities to do what is best for girls in that community.

By doing so, our leaders work with changing current social norms that limit girls' development, in order to instead develop social norms that promote and enhance girls' empowerment and development. Naturally, since we work with leaders within their local communities, many leaders might upon engaging with Futebol dá força hold values and attitudes influenced by the current social norms in their community that are harmful to girls. Therefore, the first step towards changing social norms in local communities is aligning our leaders with our values, vision and mission, before leaders can be enabled with knowledge and tools to work with changing social norms within their communities. The change of social norms starts in relation to and within football, and can through football influence social norms in society in general.
Empowering girls
Our leaders and key enablers are trained and supported to start a football team for girls, or continue coaching a girls' football team if they were already engaged as football coaches prior to engaging with Futebol dá força. The leaders are enabled to use the football team as a platform to engage and empower girls. To create conditions for empowering girls, the leaders work in parallel with engaging and involving people in their local community to enable and support girls' participation in football and girls' development and empowerment in general.

The leaders are trained in the FDF methodology, equipping them with evidence-based knowledge and tools. Upon starting their girls' football team and throughout coaching the team, they are supported in applying the knowledge and tools in practice. By applying the methodology in practice, leaders create a safe space in their football team where girls have access to a supportive coach and role model that they can identify with and relate to, as well as a supportive peer group in their team. Throughout coaching the girls, based on the FDF methodology, leaders strengthen girls' self-esteem and agency. Additionally, they facilitate conversations in relation to the football training sessions around issues important in the girls' lives that create room for critical reflection, equipping girls with knowledge to make informed decisions in the interest of their well-being.

When engaged throughout this process and throughout all activities carried out in their mission as leaders within Futebol dá força, leaders consciously act and communicate as role models, providing girls with role models they can identify with and relate to. Throughout coaching the girls, the leaders and role models endorse attitudes and behaviours that promote girls' empowerment and development; within the team, within football and in their relationships with girls' family members and other community members. This provides girls with role models advocating for a change of social norms, endorsing girls' opportunities to exercise their rights, agency and choice, consistently working towards this with the girls and in parallel within the local community.
Real life examples
We enable leaders on-site and online to empower girls
all over the world and lead change in their local communities.

See how it works in practice through
these snapshots from our growing movement:
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