Continuation of our flagship Community Sports Program (CSP)
Our Community Sports Program has reached out to almost 4000 young people since 2015. In 2022, the CSP reached out to a new cohort of 543 students. Forming a new partnership with the Global Fund for Children, we were able to reinitiate our CSP program to children between the ages of 5-10 years.
Official launch of the Community Table Tennis (CTT) program
The CTT, supported by ITTF Foundation’s Dream Building Fund, was initiated in April 2021, but due to COVID-19 related delays, the official launch event for the program took place in July 2022. The 3-day event saw all our participants gather for a table tennis tournament, with over 80 students participating in the finals, and 10 guests from partner organizations in attendance.
World Table Tennis Day 2022
Celebrating World Table Tennis Day, on 4-5 April our peer leader Khadija Moin, supported by the PSD Bhubaneswar team, used a mobile table tennis set-up to bring the sport to almost 200 children from four community-based schools in the city and discussed the need for greater gender sensitivity in society.
Launch of ‘More than a Game’ research study
In November, at the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry’s (FICCI) annual sports conference, TURF2022, we launched our landscaping report on sport for development in India, in collaboration with UNESCO New Delhi.
Partnership with Girls Not Brides
To train youth workers who are part of member organizations of Girls Not Brides’ (GNB) coalitions in Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh, PSD held three residential workshops, titled ‘Khel Ek Seekh,’ on how sport can be used to address issues of gender inequality.
Forging ahead with MeWeSports
As part of our ongoing collaboration with Sangath, we met with the advisory group of project MeWeSports in Goa in April 2022. After initial stages of research and community discussions, we also began preparing a toolkit to pilot the project with young people as part of Forca Goa Foundation's programs in Goa. The project aims to prevent substance use among young people by improving their mental wellbeing.
Peer leaders attend UNIFY2022
Our peer leaders, who are supported through a scholarship in partnership with KickOff Solutions, attended a 3-day workshop, UNIFY2022, in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. UNIFY2022 was organized by KickOff Solutions to bring together the 50 young women across India from different organizations being supported by KickOff, to come together to meet, interact and learn from each other, while exchanging stories and sharing goals.
Partnership with Signify Innovations
In collaboration with Signify Innovations, we installed new lighting with solar backup in table tennis halls in 4 community schools as part of our Community Table Tennis program, allowing us to provide proper lighting infrastructure to our participants.
Other partnerships
2022 was a fruitful year for forming new partnerships with different organizations. For Tata Trusts and NEIDA, we conducted an impact evaluation for their badminton project in Mizoram; for the ITTF Foundation, we developed a handbook on using table tennis for development; for Laureus, we are conducting a scoping study on how organizations around the world are using dance, skateboarding and other innovative sport to drive social change. We also formed partnerships with the Policy and Development Advisory Group (PDAG) and the Sports and Society Accelerator (SSA) in 2022.
