UCFB’s Dr Leah Johnstone and Global Institute of Sport’s Dr Richard Elliott have been busy in Qatar this week delivering key educational initiatives at the Generation Amazing Festival, a key legacy project of the Qatar 2022 World Cup.

Generation Amazing, a UCFB partner since 2018, has been running community outreach across the Middle East and globally since 2010 and this week announced that it has worked with more than one million young people using football as a force for good through football education and development programmes.

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This week’s Generation Amazing Festival in Qatar is the culmination of the legacy work to date and sees hundreds of young people from all World Cup participating nations enjoying a week of education and sport, with skills workshops on leadership, soft skills, inclusivity, diversity, and inclusion in sport.

Dr Richard Elliott, GIS’ Head of Professional Education, delivered an Inclusive Leadership in Sport workshop at the Generation Amazing event.

“It went really well,” Richard said. “We had a great group of engaged 16 to 19-year-olds who came from all over the world and I delivered a session that focused on three primary elements – the core components of equality, diversity and inclusion.

“I then delivered a session that related to gender disparity in sport and gave them a toolbox of things they could take away in order to promote the growth of girl’s and women’s football in their countries.”

Throughout the session, Richard also held a quiz, giving students the opportunity to test their knowledge on equality, diversity and inclusion.

“I hope that these young people now have some tools that they can take back to their various countries in order to promote the growth of girl's and women’s football.”

Working as part of Generation Amazing’s Monitoring and Evaluation team, UCFB Deputy Dean Dr Leah Johnstone’s work involved overseeing the collection and analysis of data to identify what the students have learned in their time with Generation Amazing and how it has impacted them. Leah is also ensuring that students have met desired learning outcomes and is tracking the impact of the festival on those young people over the next year.

“I’ve been working with Generation Amazing’s Monitoring and Evaluation team since last year at a festival ahead of the Arab Cup of Nations,” she said. “This is the final festival, running to coincide with the Qatar World Cup. We have been designing data collection tools for before the festival, during and we will be after. It’s really important for us to track the impact of these events, rather than just assuming they are successful. Hopefully we’ll find some interesting outcomes and scientific proof that the programme has changed lives for the better.”

UCFB and GIS will be out in Qatar for the World Cup kick-off on Sunday, 20th November and will be attending some of the tournament’s opening group games.

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