Skateboarding for Development
Concrete Jungle Foundation's methodology, theory of change and project sustainability
Concrete Jungle Foundation's methodology, theory of change and project sustainability
Skateboarding has emerged as a powerful tool for empowering youth and communities around the world. It is a highly inclusive sport that fosters a wide range of positive life-skills such as self-confidence, goal-setting, perseverance, and social competence. Unlike many other sports, skateboarding is inherently non-competitive, allowing for a welcoming and supportive environment that encourages creativity and self-expression.
Furthermore, skateboarding provides a healthy outlet for individuals to vent stress and promotes psychological well-being. Through its engaging nature, skateboarding has the unique ability to reach and engage disengaged youth, while also promoting a healthy and active lifestyle.
At the end of the day, one of the most significant benefits of skateboarding is that it's simply fun - bringing joy and excitement to those who participate.
Our skateparks are designed to support young people and provide them with a safe and inclusive environment where they can socialize, learn, and grow.
Such spaces are vital as they promote positive development and well-being for young people, which is crucial for their future success and happiness. They contribute to community building by bringing together young people from diverse backgrounds and creating opportunities for them to collaborate and learn from one another.
By fostering positive relationships and creating a sense of shared purpose, safe youth spaces can help build stronger and more cohesive communities. Additionally, when young people are supported and empowered in safe spaces, they are more likely to become active and engaged members of their communities, contributing to positive social change and collective well-being.
We respond to local demands for skateboarding facilities, in environments otherwise lacking in sports infrastructure and communal/youth spaces.
We partner with the most recognised skatepark builders in the world to provide professionally built, world-class concrete skateparks, free of charge to communities.
We leverage pedagogical expertise and years of experience to provide targeted youth programmes focused on life-skills for children and professional development for adolescents - through skateboarding.
We build up local capacity and transfer the long-term running of the park and project to local partner organisations, to ensure sustainability as well as local ownership of the project
Soft skills are a combination of social skills, personally traits and attitudes that enable people to navigate their environment, work well with others, perform well, and achieve their goals with complementing hard skills.
The Edu-Skate programme is CJF’s soft skills development programme focused on children aged 6-16. Edu-Skate utilizes skateboarding (and the life skills embedded in the activity and culture) to promote positive life skills for our service users.
Hard skills are more technical/vocational skills that relate to a specific task or situation. These skills are easily quantifiable and entail some professional, technical, or academic qualification.
CJF works with youth aged 18+ on hard skills through the Planting Seeds Apprenticeship. Aiming to tackle youth unemployment & shortage of skilled workers in the construction industry through immersive, hands-on-deck, paid apprenticeship.
We have diligently monitored our work using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. We understand the importance of investing in research to assess our impact and derive valuable insights that can guide us in improving the support we provide to the communities we serve.
Throughout our years of operation, we have identified concrete approaches to empower the communities we engage with. Over a span of 4 to 6 years, we dedicate our efforts to fostering local capacity, facilitating the registration of local nonprofits, and securing local funding sources.
