DMU’s Net Zero Football Project is offering opportunities to enhance student learning experiences through live projects, hackathons, mentoring and site visits.
For the past six months, the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goal 16 Hub at DMU has been collaborating with a network of amateur clubs and universities worldwide to develop innovations for climate action through research.
The project is closely aligned with the UN’s Football for the Goals initiative and is now entering a new phase that offers learning opportunities in various disciplines.
Currently children’s, men’s and women’s teams from Leicester, Germany, Spain, The Gambia, Republic of Benin and Malaysia are among those wanting to engage with students, either through modules or volunteering, to create a more sustainable ethos for community sport.
A list of ideas for areas of projects have been provided by the clubs. Here are a few examples:
- Mentoring young people to tell their stories of climate change through multimedia
- Developing a toolkit for grassroots clubs to reduce carbon emissions
- Leading an engagement campaign for the project
- Designing or rethinking sports buildings/ designing a clubhouse for women’s football
- Reimagining empty spaces for community sports
- Developing a community football exhibition
- Understanding female health in Leicester and the current provision for sport/Investigating community football to alleviate women’s health issues
- Identifying the potential social, health and economic benefits of having a community
- Collaborating online with university students overseas to develop climate change projects in different contexts
- Participating in ‘hackathons’ to identify opportunities for climate action.
The project also has scope for projects in many other areas including photography, journalism, textile and fashion designs, nutrition advice, violence reduction, mental health, business, politics, digital design, creative arts, health promotion, computing and education.
If you are interested in getting involved, please email Mark Charlton at DMU’s UN SDG Hub: mcharlton@dmu.ac.uk.
Posted on Monday 13 February 2023