TACLOBAN CITY – FundLife commenced its leadership training workshop last July 13 to mould youth into champion leaders and increase their capacity in using sport as a tool for development and community building.
The FundLife Leadership Academy (FLA) workshop is held every Saturday at FundLife headquarters in Tacloban City and attended by 19 of the best performing players from the Football For Life Academy (FFLA) programme across FundLife’s partner-schools and communities in Region 8.
The participants were selected because of their potential to become effective leaders and role models in their community.
Quenys, a young football player, pleased with the training workshop said, “It is essential for kids like us who are being looked up by younger kids to become better role models and we can only do this if we keep on trying to do our best in everything. Be it in football or school.”
Other participants also enjoyed the event since they were able to learn on how to be responsible, to have self-esteem and to be a capable youth champion who can work alongside with FundLife’s existing pool of coaches as they will be helping them implement the FFLA programme as part of a “support team.”
Sessions were held in a classroom-type setting as the group were engaged in various activities that utilize leadership, teamwork and camaraderie which specifically helps them to become a better version of themselves. The sessions were made successful by the help of the local coaches who are active in the FFLA programme.
According to Kimberly Lopez, Operations Manager of FundLife, the primary aim of the programme is to guide them in learning self-mastery while attending the workshop as it was designed to mould them to become leaders who are beneficial to the communities that they will serve.
Christian, an active player of FFLA, shared, “The activities that we had for the past two Saturday is like an eye-opener of who we are. I can reflect on the things that I like, what I believe in, my strengths and even my weaknesses. I came to understand that for me to become good support to our senior FFLA coaches I need to know myself first. I need to master my skills and capabilities.”
The FundLife Leadership Academy workshop will continue every Saturday until mid of August. The child leaders who will be able to complete the 12-hour workshop will be able to advance into FLA’s formal coach education course.