In 2009, Architecture for Humanity and Nike Inc’s Sustainable Business & Innovation established a revolving grants program that has funded the design and construction of innovative, sustainable and safe places to play. The goal was to provide capital to implement these structures in communities that are typically overlooked, while addressing various topics including:
We received almost 300 diverse proposals from all corners of the globe. 18 projects are currently leveraging support from Nike and Architecture for Humanity to build Sports for Social Change:
skate. Skateistan, Kabul, Afghanistan
basketball. Mahiga High Rainwater Court, Mahiga, Kenya
football. Homeless World Cup Legacy Center, Rio de Janiero, Brazil
skate. Manhattan Bridge Skatepark, New York City, United States
various. Rural Sports Center, San Pedro Apóstol, Oaxaca, Mexico
street football. Una Cancha Muchas Canchas, Guatemala City, Guatemala
football. Infrastructure: Mission to the Unreached, Delhi, India
football. Infrastructure: Asha Deep Foundation, Delhi, India
football. My Game is Beautiful, Jharkhand, India
basketball. Games in Lost Heavens, Ganhaizi village, China
football. Liga FOS, Moreno, Buenos Aires, Argentina
running. Vida Corrida, São Paulo, Brazil
football. P.A.T.E.A., Talca, Chile
football. Ohya Green Sports Park, Motoyoshi, Miyagi, Japan
judo. Shizugawa Judo Juku, Shizugawa, Miyagi, Japan
various. Disaster Recovery | Rio Floods, Vale de Cuiabá, Petrópolis, Brazil
basketball. Basketball @ Pele, Pele, Port au Prince, Haiti
surfing. Safe Trestles, San Onofre State Beach, California, United States
Download the Dec. 2011 Report (PDF)
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Location: Kabul, Afghanistan
Category: skate
Gamechangers Grant Distribution: $86,000
Local Partners: Skateistan
Afghanistan’s first co-educational skateboarding school works with boys and girls between the ages of 5 and 17 from all ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. Established in May 2007, the program offers free skateboarding classes year-round for all youth in Kabul through a team of dedicated international and Afghan volunteers, reaching over 500 students in 2009. An indoor skateboarding facility of 800 square meters was constructed in Khai Khana, in Salang Pass Road, Kabul, where 3000 square meters of land had been donated to the project. The design includes outdoor areas where football, cricket and volleyball can be played, in addition to being suitable for riding skateboards.
Location: Mahiga, Nairobi Area, Kenya
Category: basketball
Gamechangers Grant Distribution: $112,000
Local Partners: The Nobelity Project, St. Joseph Mahiga Primary School
Architecture For Humanity Design Fellow Greg Elsner worked with the Nobility Project and the St. Joseph Mahiga Hope School to design and build a full-size basketball court with an integrated rainwater collection and UV purification system. The structure’s 2500sf playing surface is covered by a metal roof that will collect an estimated 40,000 gallons of water per year, while housing changing rooms, a community stage, and multipurpose space for visiting health professionals.
Location: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Category: football
Gamechangers Grant Distribution: $270,000
Local Partners: Instituto Bola Pra Frente, Organização Civil de Ação Social (OCAS), The Homeless World Cup Foundation
The Homeless World Cup Legacy Center will be the focus for the Homeless World Cup – Leadership and Social Enterprise programs at a national level in Brazil. The Homeless World Cup Foundation uses football to encourage, energize, and empower people who are homeless. It was established to develop and nurture grass roots football programs triggered by the world-class international football tournament, the Homeless World Cup. Currently it works with football programs in over 70 nations, reaching 40,000 homeless players every year. It’s objective is to engage 1,000,000 participants in the benefits of football by 2012.
Location: New York, New York
Category: skate
Gamechangers Grant Distribution: $200,000
Additional Support: Nike Inc, P. Rod Foundation, CA Skateparks, Tony Hawk Foundation
Local Partners: Steve Rodriguez (founder 5boro), NYC Department of Parks & Recreation
The Manhattan Bridge Skatepark was a neglected skate park located in the Lower East Side. Because of its location, and the recent closing of the Brooklyn Banks, it has become the most heavily permitted park in Manhattan. The project team rebuilt the park from the ground up, and included: new concrete slab; New and inventive obstacles; simple, safe, and innovative obstacles for participants of all ages and skill levels; Integrated multi-functional elements (e.g. skate-able furniture) that invite and encourage passive participation of non-skaters/ visitors to the park; and relocated and improved dog runs (coming in fall 2012…woof!).
Location: San Pedro Apóstol, Oaxaca, Mexico
Category: football, basketball, pelota mixteca, swimming, kayaking
Gamechangers Grant Distribution: $25,000
Local Partner: Ayuntamiento Constitucional de San Pedro Apóstol
The Rural Sports Center is a foundation for the social, economic, sustainable and cultural development of the city and the community - a hub for sport, recreation, entertainment, and commerce. Through skills training and workshops the center was built with the help of the local community. The design team trained builders in indigenous building techniques, using local materials and resources, and also provided the technical guidance to adapt traditional methods in innovative ways.
Location: Guatemala City, Guatemala
Category: street football
Gamechangers Grant Distribution: $5,000
Local Partners: Buró de Intervenciones Públicas, the Municipality of Guatemala City
The completion of these two pitches is fueling the spread of urban futsal interventions in Guatemala City. Buró de Intervenciones Públicas continues to work with the local municipality and community members to design and install at least 10 more urban football (soccer) pitches -- innovative and low-cost interventions that will transform low-traffic city streets into sport + community centers.
Location: Jharkhand, India
Category: football
Gamechangers Grant Distribution: $25,000
Local Partner: YUWA
Through team sport, Yuwa provides a platform for young women to gain confidence to
make a change in their world. With the sports micro-venture grant, they worked with designers to build a secure football pitch, spectator seating, community room, and enterprise area -- did we mention these kick-startin’ girls also grow and sell mushrooms to the local community to help support their football habits?
Location: Ganhaizi village, China
Category: basketball
Gamechangers Grant Distribution: $25,000
Local Partner: Habitat for Humanity, China
This micro-grant will support Habitat for Humanity China's work in Ganhaizi -- a remote village in a mountainous region (know as "the Lost Heavens" -- a district with one of the largest Miao minority ethnic populations in China. They will build an exterior basketball court, and spectator seating -- providing a community hub for socializing, events, and the favorite activity of Ganhaizi's children and elderly alike - basketball.
INCREASING SPORTS INFRASTRUCTURE IN DELHI
Location: New Delhi, India
Category: football
Gamechangers Grant Distribution: $36,000 / 2 sites
Local Partners: Magic Bus, Asha Deep Foundation, Mission to the Unreached
Architecture for Humanity has partnered with Magic Bus to improve the infrastructure at two centers that will facilitate community oriented sports programs in under privileged neighborhoods of Delhi. The developed sports/play fields and supporting infrastructure will help inculcate a sporting culture among children and youth in the community and help Magic Bus use its unique Sports for Development (S4D) curriculum to provide access to sport and promote every child's right to: play; gender inclusion; education; health care.
Location: Moreno, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina
Category: football
Gamechangers Grant Distribution: $25,000
Nike Argentina Support: $55,000
Local Partner: FUDE (Fundación Fútbol para el Desarrollo)
FUDE (Fundación Fútbol para el Desarrollo) is a non-profit organization which works in the promotion of community development and the improvement of life conditions of individuals and their communities through sports, particularly football. FUDE has three main programs: Liga FOS (Fútbol para la Oportunidad Social), a local program working with football and education as a tool to promote community development; Regional Coordination of streetfootballworld’s global network; and health programs that provide medical care for children and youth, in addition to training community members as health agents. Architecture for Humanity is working with the local partners and community to design and construct a prototype sport and facilities center for the community league that includes football pitches; multi-purpose rooms (health + education, events); locker rooms; and community open space/ gardens.
Location: São Paulo, Brazil
Category: running, multi-sport
Gamechangers Grant Distribution: $100,000
Nike do Brasil Support: $50,000
Local Partner: Associação de Moradores da Cohab Adventista 1, Corredores do Parque Santo Dias
Capão Redondo is a low-income neighborhood located in the southwest of São Paulo. The project site is adjacent to the largely forested Parque Santo Dias that provides much needed public green space and is used for running and exercise. Associação de Moradores da Cohab Adventista 1 and multiple local community sports organizations, including Corredores do Parque Santo Dias use the park regularly. The Santo Dias Park Runners provide low-income persons access to the world of sport through the free program initiative of professional runner Marineide Santos Silva. Vida Corrida will house their new offices, community gathering/ event space, new long jump and exercise areas and improvements to the existing football pitch.
Location: Pele, Port-au-Prince, Ouest, Haiti
Category: basketball
Support by Nike Inc: $17,500
Local Partner: École Baptiste Bon Berger, Pele
This project will be a benchmark, demonstrating how small scale sports facilities can be included on tight urban campuses. As part of the reconstruction of the campus it is being split into publicly accessible services (basket ball court, church, IT lab, kitchen) and private areas for classrooms and play spaces.
Location: Talca, Chile
Category: football
Support by Nike Inc: $50,000
Local Partner: Neighborhood council headquarters of Santa Ana
This goal of this project is to turn the neighborhood council headquarters into a Sports and information Centre. By enclosing an existing courtyard with retrofitted shipping containers, the neighborhood will have a 20x10meter flexible, shaded outdoor sports area. The containers will be fitted out with changing rooms and toilets at one end of the site and a cyber café, multimedia lab, and sports equipment storage.
Location: Motoyoshi, Kesennuma, Miyagi, Japan
Category: football
Support by Nike Inc + Nike Japan: $93,000
Local Partner: Ohya Junior High School
At the Ohya Junior High School all of the sports grounds have been overtaken by temporary homes. The coach of the schools soccer team also happens to be an asparagus farmer who has generously donated his land to be a sports field for the school -- thus was born the Ohya Green Sports Park. Designed by Tomoro Aida, this simple design utilizes local displaced fishermen to build the protective surround and re-purposes debris for seating.
Location: Shizugawa, Minami-sanriku-cho, Miyagi, Japan
Category: Judo
Support by Nike Inc + Nike Japan: $10,000
Local Partner: Ayelet H. Fogel, Director of International Students at Sendai Ikuei Gakuen
After the tsunami, the students were forced to move into a partitioned part of a fishing warehouse belonging to one of the student’s family. The walls had no insulation and some of the windows were missing (replaced by a tarpaulin). Architecture for Humanity retrofit the interior, formalizing an entrance and insulating the space.
Location: Vale do Cuiabá, Petrópolis, Brazil
Category: football, volleyball, general recreation
Nike do Brasil Grant Distribution: $100,000
Local Partner: Instituto da Criança
Architecture for Humanity is partnering with the Instituto da Criança to develop a small sports, recreation and community center for a new, 61-unit housing development for families displaced by massive flooding and mudslides in a rare 24-hr storm event in January 2011.
Safe Trestles
Trestles, aka the Yosemite of surfing, is under threat due to safety and environmental concerns. Currently, over 100,000 people each year follow informal trails through marshlands and over a very active railroad corridor to gain access to the celebrated breaks. These shortcuts have led to numerous close calls and threaten the fragile ecosystem of the most pristine natural watershed system remaining in Southern California. In response, a coalition of concerned groups rallied, and with Nike 6.0 support, a solution became foreseeable, however unforeseen. Enter Architecture for Humanity, a non-profit organization that, through a network of building professionals, brings design, construction, and development services to communities in need. Together, they launched “Safe Trestles,” an open-to-all, two-phase ideas competition. Cost for submitting an idea: $20.
Copa Arquitectura
A little healthy competition is good no? We agree, which is why we launched the Copa Arquitectura where participants had 6 weeks to partner with a designer from a 2011 Copa America country to design a small youth football (soccer) facility for less than $45,000 USD for Liga FOS. Check out the winners and all the design ideas here.
No social network voting contests, no virtual farms to tend to, no magic codes to tweet - just funding directed where it is needed most, in supporting projects on the ground. Welcome to the GAMECHANGERS Sports Micro-Venture Fund.
The Fund is a partnership between Architecture for Humanity and Nike Inc. In the past 18 months the program has funded innovative projects in Afghanistan (Skate), Brazil (Football/Soccer), Kenya (Basketball) and the United States (American Football).
We are seeking proposals for the final round of funding to support the construction of sports facilities offering programs that tackle social issues in the community. This Request for Proposal (RFP) process will award up to $500,000 in funds and is directed toward micro-interventions with a construction time line of 6 to 9 months. The majority of these grants will be $25,000 for building or upgrading facilities and completing existing projects. 10% of the funding will be earmarked for the professional design services and engineering.
At the discretion of the funding team a small number of selected proposals will be awarded additional funds based on need and scope of impact.
If you're game, apply today.
Who is eligible?
This Request for Proposal (RFP) is open to locally-based organizations that empower the community through sports as a mechanism to spur social change and/or economic development. Projects can be anywhere in the world. They may have singular goals or multiple functions. They should address one or more of the following key areas:
How many projects will get chosen?
This is a global fund and we are looking to support a minimum of two projects from each of the five global regions: Africa; the Americas; Asia; Europe; and Oceania. Additionally we may award separate funds to additional projects or increase funds for selected projects that deem further investment. This fund will cap at $500,000
What are the ground rules?
To apply you must:
The Jury
Check out our game changing jurors – a select group of stakeholders, existing grant recipients and former pro athletes.
The Time line
Submission Period August 4th - October 29th 2010
Grants Announced: December 2010
Funding distribution: January 2011
Project completion: July to September 2011
Architecture for Humanity and Nike Inc’s Social Innovations established a revolving grants program that has funded the design and construction of innovative, sustainable and safe places to play. The goal was to provide capital to implement these structures in communities that are typically overlooked.
Game on.
