 So welcome everyone, thanks for your patience. We obviously are waiting on one more of our speakers who will hopefully be joining us momentarily, but we wanted to get our conversation underway, recognizing everyone's time. So again, I'm Nicole Golden, I'm the Director of the Youth Prosperity and Security Initiative here at CSIS, which we launched last year in partnership with the International Youth Foundation. And very, very thrilled to be joined today by a very unique and diverse and very distinguished panel of GACs. To my far right is Maury Tahara-Pour, she's the Senior Advisor for Sport and Development at USAID, and she is also a professor at the Wharton School, and obviously you all have the full bios in front of you and can learn more about her very illustrious background. To my right, Brendan Tuey is the Co-Founder and President of Peace Players International, an organization really at the forefront of engaging young people in sport for peace and development, and we're really excited to hear more from him about not only their work, but just his thoughts on our key theme of more than medals. And to my left is Rebecca Zilberman with the British Council, she's the lead for Global Society and Partnership, and as you'll hear more about, the British Council has been doing a lot of work related to engaging young people in sport and cultural affairs, and then of course we'll be very, very thrilled when hopefully Tom Dolan, two-time Olympic champion, swimmer from the Atlanta Games and the Sydney Games inducting into the International, I mean International Hall of Fame, will be able to join us and lend his perspective as someone that lived and breathed this also to speak. So with that, as many of you know, who in the room has Olympic fever? I expect a lot more hands to go up. So the games are under way, and I think it goes without saying that sport really touches, I'm sure almost everyone in the room has an experience with the thrill of victory, as they say, or the agony of defeat, full disclosure for me, it was much more experience with the agony of defeat than the thrill of victory, but I took my interest in sport from maybe being a not so successful player to a very, I'd like to think, successful fan and spectator. But as I work in the development and foreign policy space and in particular in the youth development space, when I think about sport, when I think about the Olympics, it's taken on probably an additional meaning. I've seen and watched and with great interest how sport and the sport for peace and development movement, if you will, has grown, and we've had a number of conversations here at CSI, the youth initiative, about thinking in the context of global youth unemployment where different tools and platforms and solutions for imparting life skills or soft skills into young people in innovative ways, and I've seen sport increasingly come up in that conversation, in addition to, of course, the Olympics conversation that many of us are having now around engaging young people and really just sport in general as a tool to bring people together. I love this quote I'm going to read before turning it over to my panel from Nelson Mandela. Some of you might have heard it, but if you'll just indulge me quickly. Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to unite in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they can understand. Sport can create hope where there is once only despair. It is more powerful than governments in breaking down racial barriers. It laughs in the face of all types of discrimination. So I think, you know, I can't say it any better than that and I'm really just excited to have, to get a conversation underway. So with that, I'm going to ask Brendan first to sort of take that opening and just tell us what was behind peace players international. What brought it together around this, you know, sport for peace and development space? Sure. I'm miles down 16th Street and grew up probably like most of the people in this room here playing sports. And, you know, on the playground or playing field, it didn't matter what color you were or what religion you were. The question was, you know, could you play? And, yeah, and throughout my growing up in high school, my two younger brothers, our school was basketball and then up playing in college and getting the opportunity to play in Ireland, in Dublin, Ireland. And while I was there, we went to Gonzaga High School and every few years, the team did a service trip somewhere. And my youngest brother was a senior on that team and I thought, hey, why not, why not Ireland? And where I was in Dublin, it was about two hours south of Belfast, Northern Ireland, where most of you probably are aware there's been a long standing conflict between the Protestant and Catholic communities there. And kids are divided by the neighborhoods they live in, the schools they attended, even the sports they did play. But basketball was the one real neutral sport. It was fairly new. It's more seen as an American sport than anything, but neither the Protestant or Catholic community felt like the other side owned it. So the idea was to do some coaching clinics for Protestant and Catholic kids, the high school players and coaches helped run them, and we had a great week. And you know, you bring kids together, even initially for the short term, and you mix them up and you say compete, win. Again, who I'm passing the ball to has a lot less relevance than, hey, can this person help me win? Can this person score? So kind of long story short, my brother ended up graduating college and ended up at Belfast doing something similar. And he came back in 2001 with the idea to start an organization using sports to bring people together. And I was 24, my brother was 22, you know, typical, you know, naive American white man, right? We can do this. So my dad's a lawyer, he'll become a 5-1 secret nonprofit. We raised about $7,000 from our family and friends, and my brother showed up in Durban, South Africa, with a few connections he had made, with a police chief he had befriended in Northern Ireland. I had another job, I kind of helped advise him on the way, and my brother's a pretty, he's a fearless kid, and people really like him, so he started knocking on doors, white schools, black schools, and we were in Durban, the big Indian population. And in South Africa, unlike Northern Ireland or in the States, there's no red tape. So you can go knock on a school door and they say, not who are you, do you have certification, you know, what do you want, please, come and coach my kids. So after a while, he was able to convince a white principal. Again, in South Africa, like Northern Ireland, black kids were playing soccer, white kids were playing rugby and cricket, but basketball is not that popular, so kids feel comfortable coming to play together. So we were able to convince a principal at a white school to have a match for the township school. And the guy was crazy enough to do it. It had never happened in the history of South Africa where kids from a white school went into a township. So South African Broadcasting Channel was there, filmed it, and they're on the bus with these kids who had never, you know, hardly, you know, much been out of their neighborhood, much less been to a township. And the kids are scared, see the fear in their eyes. You get off the bus and it's not just the school, like the whole township area, that neighborhood's out there waiting for them. They get off the bus, everyone gives them a huge stand-in ovation, the captain's exchange flags, half-court, and we mix them up. And the South African Broadcasting Channel was interviewing the kids and coaches and some parents afterwards, and everyone was pretty much saying the same thing. I was scared, didn't know what to expect, now I can't wait for that again. So I think that was really the aha moment, you know, I think we can do this. Let's really scan it up, become, you know, a real organization. Now it's a lot tougher than it sounds, you know, particularly around raising money and developing partnerships and learning how to, you know, do everything that needs to be done and to work, you know, in order to run and grow a successful nonprofit. That was, so we had, I mean, there was all these moments, but once I think that hit, we thought, you know what, we're really onto something. So we went back to Northern Ireland the next year as our own organization and started in Israel in the West Bank in 2005, Cyprus 2007, and then a year ago launched a train the trainer technical assistance program that now works in lots of different places. That's great. And so, you know, I'm hearing some of that, you know, in that initial intro, it's a really interesting backstory, which I actually hadn't heard. So I'm glad to get it. You know, you say you bring young people together on the field, and it's about teamwork, it's about working together. You know, it's not a function of who I'm passing it to just about that they're going to be there and you know, my teammate or they're my opponent. On the on the youth development side and getting back to the idea of the workforce, I think some of the other skills that we think about that are increasingly being spotlighted and being developed through sport, whether it's communications, discipline, the idea of time management, again, working together, language skills with certain degree. And I know that while, you know, British Council is an international development organization, per se, has really been engaged in a lot of sport programs. And particularly with young people, one that I personally very that I'm following quite closely has been the premier skills program, which is a partnership with the English Premier League, using football or dare I say soccer. Maybe it's the other way around, Zachary dare I say football, to sort of really translate some of these, you know, life skills that are going to prepare young people for success off the field. So I wanted to sort of turn over to you, Rebecca, for a little more on what you've seen in that. And then I want to go to Maury for some broader observation. Rebecca thoughts. Sure. So the British Council, for those who don't know, we are the UK's cultural relations organization. And essentially, what we mean by cultural relations is, we build trust by creating opportunities. And we do this through a variety of different areas, bringing the assets of the UK together with assets from other countries. And one of the key areas is of course, through sports. We have two very large programs that we've been running since 2007, the one that Nicole mentioned, which is still ongoing called Premier Skills. And the 2012 Olympic Legacy program that we've been working on in partnership with UNICEF, UK Sport, the Youth Sport Trust, and a charity called In called International Inspiration. That program began in 2007 with a goal to reach, or excuse me, affect the lives of 12 million people in 20 countries by 2014. And I'm pleased to say we've surpassed that. And Premier Skills so far has trained 2,300 community coaches in the 20 countries that it's been operating. And that training model has been cascaded to reach the lives of 500,000 young people. Premier Skills, actually, we just announced the next phase of the program. So we're running it till 2016 in partnership with the Premier League. And one of the key goals for us is a minimum participation of 50% girls and women in the program. And I can talk about that in greater detail later. But to go back to skills, and what we've seen so far in some of the young people that have participated, we set out with a number of outcomes that we're looking to achieve through both of these programs. And it really is around using sport for community development. So building stronger communities by engaging not only the young people who are playing these sports, but also the coaches that come into the program. Because in a lot of countries, a number of these coaches see sports as simply sports, as opposed to how you can use sport to teach other skills like for us English language, as well as things like the soft skills that Nicole had mentioned, timekeeping, attendance, working together, leadership, etc. And for a lot of these kids who haven't been exposed to that, all of a sudden their world opens to them. All of a sudden they say, you know, there are options beyond just what I thought was my traditional path, particularly for some of the girls and young women that we've engaged in the program. Great. Well, on cue. Hello, everyone. Hello, everyone. Yeah, exactly. So just wanting to make sure I was on the right page. Everyone's really early. Yeah, this is a pregame. Yeah, we're early. So everyone, this is a tundle and we gave you a hopefully a nice introduction before your arrival. We're very good. Obviously thrilled to that you're able to join us. So thank thank you. My pleasure. Sorry for being late. No here. There is good luck. Yeah, it's it's not it's not enjoyable driving around out there right now. So it took me an hour and a half to get here from Virginia. So we'll move on from that. So we've just been I'm going to come to you in a minute, give you a chance to get settled. We've just sort of heard from Brendan about kind of the history of peace players and the idea of sport being a tool to bring young people together towards outcomes of peace and friendship and really as a conflict mitigation, then heard from from Rebecca a little bit on the skill side of sport. I'm going to turn to you in a minute. But first, I'm going to go to Maury. As you've been in the space for some time, you've been at USA ID now for about three years. And I'd be curious to hear from you as how you've seen sport for peace and development grow, you know, you really sort of your leadership, we were lucky, I was lucky enough to be Maury's colleague at USA ID for some time, has, you know, focused on new partnerships and really elevating the conversation around sport. And in particular, sport development and the connection to the youth peace. I love your thoughts. And then I'm going to turn back to you as somebody that lived and breathed it all. So I should probably say that the development space was very new to me. I worked in sports prior to coming to USA ID and did a lot of athlete development work, worked with professional athletes in their education and sort of helping them transition out of their careers. So development was, was new. And I think in a lot of ways I've learned a lot through this journey as well. I should say that while my role is fairly new at USA ID, sport is not something that is new to USA ID. Our missions around the world have funded sports programs for probably as long as we've been around, honestly, and more so in countries where there's a really strong sport culture. So that sport becomes part of the DNA of the community. And therefore, it becomes really valuable tool for that community used to integrate it into childhood education and development and so on and so forth. Nicole previously asked me to talk about sort of trends a little bit as well. And what I've seen during this time, growth, there's, there's a lot of organizations that sort of pop up, Brendan knows this all too well, who are very passionate about sport, which is the thing that it does is it creates this passion. And people want to use this opportunity to actually create sort of a positive behavior change among youth and community. So we've seen a lot of that we've seen a lot of new organizations. So the, the inside of that is that there are there is sort of this effort to really use sport as a vehicle for change. The sort of not so good side of it is that it creates a lot of fragmentation. And as a result, we see a lot of organizations also come and go. It's not easy. It takes more than just passion to to put an organization together. To my left, since it's Brendan, who really has one of the leading premier NGOs in the space, and for a number of reasons. And so I'm going to talk about you a little bit. But but the reason why peace players, and I think it's a great example to use is that the, you know, previously, we all know in this room that sport has a lot of positive attributes, obviously. And for years, we talked about it having sort of positive impacts with respect to physical and psychological sort of impact on kids. And it was a great thing for kids to be involved in. I think over the past few years, it's become more of a serious conversation around sport where we're really looking at it not just from those two perspectives, but how to use this as a vehicle to create behavior change as well, which is not an easy thing to do, obviously, and sustainable behavior change in that curbing negative behaviors, you know, so there's like the positive behavior change bottle, and then there's that that says, and we're going to dissuade you from doing negative negative things from bad things. So we've seen a lot of Latin America violence prevention in youth using sport as a vehicle for change. Peace players, what I think is really important about the organization is that they've done a remarkable job, not just delivering the services, but really looking at sustainable change in these kids. And we all know, especially in development, I mean, Rod Shaw, who's our our administrator, often talks about sustainable development, but this in fact, if you want to create change, this is not a, you know, one time go in, drop into a program leave. And that's it. That really to create this sort of long term behavior change, you see the impact of this work over time. How do you do that? You do a tremendous amount of evaluation work. So really robust evaluation model that's associated with these programs, unfortunately, some of these organizations that don't have the wherewithal to do it with whether it's funding, whether it's staffing, often can't really show that. And many people actually think that there isn't a lot of evaluation work in this area. There really is. There's actually a tremendous amount of it. But just as I talked about that fragmentation, it leads to the same thing in the evaluations. But what peace players has done is actually lead the way for a lot of the other organizations and really for this field in a lot of ways, because they have probably the first sort of longitudinal study around this and looking at sort of long term behavior change. This in fact really changes the way we talk about sport in the development space, where we take it far more seriously, where it becomes equally as important to fund a sport program, I hope, as it does to look at other models, and really integrating sport, not as a byproduct of our programs, but really just yet another vehicle, another tool. Many people refer to it as the carrot, if you will, but you can't capture the attention of these kids, what do you do? You give them a basketball. And through that, then you teach them other behaviors. So if I directly answered your question, but I think that's sort of the trend that we've seen is really this becoming a very, very compelling, very serious sort of area that we're looking at in development. And I see my colleagues here from State Department in diplomacy. This is not just fun anymore. I think it's become really a very sort of serious, intense conversation around where is the future of sport in development. And I think there's those great thanks, Maury, because lots of things I want to come back to. But before we do, now that we are lucky to have Tom with us, it feels a little silly to ask a two time Olympic champion to talk about something else other than medals. But you know, in that theme, I mean, how does this resonate with you as somebody that lived it and breathed it and, you know, was a young person going through sport at this very competitive and international sort of Olympic level, love to sort of just hear the personal experience. Yeah, I mean, I think that I have a unique perspective in that I lived through a lot of even what Maury is talking about. But I think on the other end of it, kind of towards the end of my career and post career, doing a lot of work with the United States swimming in the USOC. And also being fortunate to be in a sport that's global. I mean, I think that we talk a lot about sport being global, but the actual competitive arena that you live in with whatever sport that you may participate in, isn't always global. I think I was very fortunate at a young age to travel around the world, having no idea what that meant or what I was really doing other than following a black line back and forth. And I think it's a it's a it's a funny thing as you move away from that kind of competitive arena, true in life and with everything that we do and that, man, I wish I knew now, you know, it could go back in time and and and put it in place and you find that even within the life cycle of your career. I think you hear it a lot. It's kind of used a little bit too much of a cliche, but I think within your career, you within yourself by, say the last 25 30% of your career have really figured out the game and and can fully appreciate your surroundings and all the people that help you get to where you are an elite level and all the amazing volunteers that put the events together. And I think it takes a long time to kind of pull that all together and have a larger scope, if you will, of perspective as to what it takes. And then in turn, the trickle down of it is the impact that you yourself have on people. And I think at a young age and an elite level in any sport, it's very hard to fully appreciate that. And in turn, I firmly believe it's very hard then to be impactful because you don't really understand who you're impacting and in what ways you're impacting, be it good or bad, which unfortunately see a lot in the big time professional sports because there just isn't a connection yet of, wow, it really does make a difference when it's simplistic level, I stop and talk to a group of young kids and what they take away from that. And I think a lot of times it depends on the sport that you're brought up in. I can tell you my personal story is that I had a very hard time having those types of conversations. Not, I don't have a hard time talking, but I did have a hard time fully, I think relating to the importance of the messages that we as athletes can impart on anyone and everyone. Part of that is also I think in the world of swimming, it is a very similar to rungs on a ladder, very long, very vertical climb to get to the elite level. And so there's really no smoke and mirrors in that you know what you've put in to get there, which is also why knock on wood, hopefully you found most swimmers are very grounded. There isn't a lot of fluff to the messages, because it's very blue collar, hard work, some might wonder why you would even want to put in that many hours in just look staring at the bottom of the pool for that many years to get to that point where you feel like, hey, this is a good message that I'm passing along to kids. And it's kind of what I'll get to in a second, which is I think what everyone up here is aiming for and that is the life skills that you can impart on kids, on youth, on any group of I think interested listeners. And that's what sport does. It provides life skills. And that's where we have a huge divide right now and that we need to bridge. And I think Maury did a lot of that. It sounds like even before in working with professional athletes, it's a classic problem that we all have of you see these people that are massively successful and they're successful not just because they have incredible physical skills, they're successful because they figured out how to utilize those to the best of their ability to be better than everyone else in the world. That doesn't just stop in that one bucket. You can't just compartmentalize that. Those skills work for life in a lot of different arenas that have nothing to do with going from point A to point B in the water. That classic kind of struggle though is it doesn't just happen. You don't just get that and think, oh yeah that makes sense. And I think that's kind of what we're all rooted in which is you don't have to win an Olympic gold medal to know that life skills come out of working hard and doing something you love and being passionate about it. The beauty of that is it doesn't matter whether it takes you an hour to get to the other side or it takes you 30 seconds to get to the other side. All of those skills are still there and embedded in you. And so I think for me it was an interesting I think kind of step by step process to in the beginning I felt like well who am I to to think that my word matters to people. Because again I came from the sport that you don't jump rungs on the ladder. You go step by step and it takes a really long time and it's very difficult. No different than anything else we do in life but as a result at 18, 19 years old as a world record holder you don't know what the what that means. You don't know what what does it mean to have a world record. I don't know I just swam the best time. You don't get that like in the history of the world knowing some faster. The beauty of youth is you have no idea what that means. At 38 if I knew that at 18 I probably would never get in the water again because I'd be so freaked out. But the reality of it is does go completely in line then with then why would I think I would feel comfortable getting up in front of a group of people whether it's young people or not and passing along messages who am I I'm an 18 year old kid or a 20 year old kid in Atlanta and and and so on to Sydney and I think that what ends up happening is you go through the the process of realizing that it's not about you it's about your message. You don't have to feel like like some ego maniacal crazed lunatic and saying listen to me because I'm the only one that's figured this out. You're just giving your perspective on look I was fortunate to to find something that I was passionate about and I loved and it wasn't work cliches but nevertheless that's how you get out of bed at 4.15 in the morning getting a freezing cold water. It can't be work and I think you then feel as though you know what these messages are more than just here's how I won. These are messages of I have now fallen in love with the process not what that process gets me to and therefore all of you can fall in love with that process on whatever path you choose and I think that's when I started to figure it out in terms of having an impact on young people and having to be much more important than just hey here's my gold medal do you guys want to look at it because it's unattainable. You know and I think I remember as a little kid meeting professional athletes and Olympians and just thinking it was some far off mystical magical place that isn't relatable and in fact it has nothing to do with how shiny the medal is and everything to do with what what did you put into it and I think that's where I'm a firm believer in this idea of it's not as kind of simple as just saying oh everyone should participate in sport. The idea is well what do you get out of that. It's an avenue to have the conversation with them to say look it in your mind this is simplistic because you want to make a basket right you want to make a three-pointer and that seems fun but actually they're a lot more deep-rooted huge kind of life skills and themes that you can can can garner from that that you don't have to understand right now but as you get older you will appreciate them and that's I think a lot of what we're talking about and that's a lot of what I what I saw and I guess you know just to kind of last last point is Nicole was kind of mentioning to me you know bring your personal experience into it and then where do you see it now and I think I think there's there's kind of three three factors right now that have changed from even when I swam and I did a lot of public speaking and a lot of working with groups of kids and I had very bad asthma and so I did a lot of work with with pharmaceutical companies and we then linked into public school systems around the US and so I would go on on speaking tours and do 15 to 20 speeches a year where we would go into middle schools and elementary schools and high schools and it was awesome for me because I could go I got up and spoke after the doctor and hopefully I don't know if there's doctors in the room but I apologize if there are I love doctors I've seen too many of my life not the most not the most awe-inspiring public speakers tend to be a bit dry and so for me it was like even if I couldn't form a sentence everyone's like oh my god this is so much more fun we're not talking about you know stale medical side of it and just tell your story about how you struggle with asthma but I think the interesting part of that is it got me in front of kids to see the reaction to see that you had a level of accomplishment that they could they could relate to in the sense that they saw they watched the Olympics they they love watching the Olympics and there's a simplistic side to the Olympics that it is the every man's competition of hey all of these people whether they're still kids or now adults they're just doing what when their parents let them out of the house when they're five years old they're just doing that and I think that's why people love the Olympics because it's like man I do that too like when I have free time I do that and they've just found that passion to to pursue that and I think what's changed now versus even when I was competing or three things one I think there's a there's a global communication ability now that we didn't have 15 20 years ago which has brought this whole space and made it feel a lot smaller which is a very good thing and it becomes a bit more real the fact that you live in Sweden and love a sport in Sweden you it's still relatable to if you live in Australia and love a sport in Australia whereas before that was just you couldn't bridge that I think the second thing is is the realization of life skills I think it's the idea of these aren't just kind of far away I can never touch them athletes or goals in whatever sport children choose they are there are skill sets now and we're I think we're all more sophisticated in communicating that to groups of people that there are skill sets that come out of it that become life skills I think that was never talked about when I grew up swimming I think that's a huge thing I think the third thing is the level of professionalism I think Mori kind of touched on that sorry I keep referring to Mori because I came late and that's she's the only one I heard so far but I'm sure everyone else had awesome comments to related to that but I think that is the level of professionalism I think it's very different now and again I would obviously tend to speak more towards the athlete themselves I think they they carry themselves in a much more professional manner and again I would speak more towards the Olympic arena just because that's that's my world I am I will forever be impressed with as each year goes by how much more articulate how much more serious in a professional way our athletes have become and I think that's I think it's very impactful because I think it takes it from a here's just a kid that got lucky or here's just a super super talented kid that just found their niche and in that way in those stories youth it's harder for them to relate to that because it's kind of the one-off it's that you know it's the one in a million chance whereas I think as athletes become more professional and how they carry themselves not in the professionalism of their sport but how they carry themselves and interact with everyone I think kids relate to that more because it becomes a bit more of here's someone that is really organized in their thoughts and and I understand what they're saying it's not just kind of it's great to be here you know what an honor but they there are true messages that that are linkable and and actionable I think in passing along and I think that's that's helped all of us to be able to then through organizations that are run more professional I think take it to a different level than it's been in say the last 20 years thank you lots to follow up on and only so much time but picking up on something you know more you that you introduced actually really that the four of you hit on I keep the word that kept coming to my mind and moving from the natural you know we love sport because we like to play to the seriousness is is intentionality and the idea of bringing intentionality into programs and policies and coaching methods and preparation of athletes that will make sport be more than just you know about metal so to speak about the competition to get to some of these other outcomes whether they be peaceful whether they be skills development you know or somewhere in between I'm wondering Rebecca if you can maybe start and sort of pick up on that and and is that am I just making up things as does that seem sensible you know just in the way that you've gone about your work sure so I think there British Council because we are engaged in long-term activity so you don't build trust overnight as all of us know we're very keen on ensuring that we set the outcomes that we're looking to achieve in place before we start designing a program so that we know that whatever interventions we bring to the table they work toward achieving those ultimate goals now with our work in sport it really is around using sport for community development and in both premier skills and international inspiration we have worked very hard to with our partners ensure that we're engaging on a number of different levels so you've got the engagement with the participants certainly obviously they are your target audience then you you obviously want to engage with practitioners and then finally also engaging at the policy level and through that we see that longer term systemic change can happen now of course it doesn't happen overnight so one example from a policy point of view through the international inspiration program we actually brought a series of our group I should say of differently abled athletes from Northern Ireland actually to Jordan to basically showcase how sport can be used to engage a broader community of young people who wouldn't necessarily have access to a game of tag for example and generally it wasn't because then anyone wanted to exclude them they just didn't know how to include them so as a result of that trip as a result of showcasing how some of our partner organizations like UK sport and the youth sport trust were able to pull in curriculum that is much more accessible the government of Jordan helped set up a policy including differently abled athletes that was then cascaded throughout the country so that's one large-scale policy example of how we've we've achieved change through working in sport on a slightly more focus scale we've found through premier skills adapted a model that the Premier League has rolled out quite successfully in the UK in the UK it's called the kicks program kicks with a Z or a Zed as you say in the UK and essentially it's working with Premier League teams to target young people who are very heavily at risk so they're in communities with high levels of crime and this is a very in-depth program in that it engages young people three nights a week for an entire year particularly after school when they would obviously get into other let's say on savory activities and as a result of this in in places like Wolverhampton actually the the crime rate went down by 40 percent so we've adapted that model in a few key countries where we work with premier skills India is one working in Calcutta or Calcutta we've rolled out a program called Calcutta goals and again it's ensuring that not only are we working with the participants there and sort of coming in with the Premier League but ensuring that we involve all of the local stakeholders in that community so that they feel that they've got ownership in the program so we've worked with the police force there we've worked with nine local clubs we worked with the Parks and Rec department to ensure again that they they are all contributing and to the point where we've seen some of the fans of the nine clubs in Calcutta coming out and volunteering their time with these kids so they themselves are becoming mentors and taking ownership it's really interesting I mean you mentioned Tom you know being asthmatic and and one of the other I think uses in the broader international context of sport and peace and development is it particularly use in for children and young people and overcoming adversity whether it's you know you mentioned differently abled athletes working in refugee communities that you know but again it's this idea of moving from you know general you know sport and play let's just put them on the field or put them in the pool to you know how do you design a program to be you know with this intentionality and the seriousness to Maury's point about you know the outcome I mean Brenda do you have sort of thoughts on that and in the spaces where you work yeah lots of mistakes you know our objective is not to create the best athletes for the best basketball players it's really around helping young people see other as human beings developing friendships and bringing their families their peers their communities into the process at the same time if you don't have a strong sports program if kids feel like they're getting other stuff stuffed down they're not gonna like it they're not gonna come back so we you know we started out really just being about the sport and that was great where kids were coming together you know in this safe space feeling like alright you know I'm seeing my teammate as a new being I'm developing friendships but it ended when they went back to their home and their community they were here and all this other stuff that contradicted what they were you know learning through their experience with us and then so we we got actually a really good curriculum partner the Arbor Insurance Institute and we developed a curriculum that you know took their philosophies and I don't want to get too cocky but a lot around seeing each other as humans about how we put our own boxes and this issue of collusion I just went back to them they'll do something bad to me it's worse and worse and worse and we don't know what we're doing and so we were really heavy on the curriculum part and it was too heavy so the kids were like I don't like this stuff so then we came to the point with you know what let's focus on training the coaches the right way and developing you know a culture of of respect of friendship of understanding that I'm gonna have any impact I got to look at myself first and then go for it and so that's where we've been for the last four or five years and it's been really great it's not perfect but I think what we're most proud of is that you go to our sites and you hear this common language and you see people talking about these players like we do and so I think what's key and I think that we started in state of before on understanding what the intentions are the objectives are and making sure that everyone in your program does so at least you're on the same page so I'm saying listen my job although you know having a winning team of for example in Israel we've got Israeli and Palestinian kids playing together nationally and the fact that they're doing really well and winning it just adds with great attention you know other people say a lot of our work is about making things happen that were happening before and if the broader community is witnessing and saying not only these kids playing they're winning and these kids going into you know an all Israeli community all Jewish community and what are Palestinian kids doing there and then they're seeing they're winning and then the Palestinians themselves have always been seen as kind of less than not having the same resources they're seeing themselves hey I can compete on a level playing field so the competition part is really really important people just have to see that that's not the end goal but it's a critical part to it. It's really interesting because I mean brought up a few points that you know I often say in youth development that sometimes a youth program doesn't necessarily have youth in it right it's it's about the families it's about you know training coaches it's about preparing adults to better and more effectively engage and creating those relationships and one of the other pieces you know that Rebecca you hit on and Tom I know you have some experience with from a different perspective is the idea of participation the idea of you know engaging stakeholders all of them in the process and you know Tom you mentioned to me you mentioned here some of your work with the USOC and the idea of you know athlete and stakeholder engagement and we're curious to hear you know your perspective on how important that is in sort of setting the policy and program and then from a broader sort of international perspective you know Maury, Brenda and Rebecca how that that participation piece has been important to being more effective. Yeah it's a it's a great topic it's it's a it's a tough one to navigate from from my perspective to a certain extent I'll choose my words carefully there's a there's a history that I think for Olympic sports it has has played out over a long period of time that you've seen play out in a much shorter period of time and in a faster rate in professional sports and that is what what word and voice and level of seriousness and professionalism does does an athlete have in policy change. Historically in the Olympic movement less than zero I think that two kind of two things have happened and and and the path the pathways have split and they're very different one is in sports like track and field is a really good example they went the route of saying you know what we're not being heard and now we're gonna go our own way we're actually not gonna challenge in-house if you will the system we're gonna make our own system and we'll do it our own way that's how things like you know that through Europe through the summer how they have competitions that are really athlete run and the golden I think it's called forget the name exactly but the golden shoe or golden cleat or the series of meets and that was born out of the fact that track and field athlete said wait a second this is about us the competitions are about us the organizations are about us in other words who who cares if nobody is is running or who cares if there isn't a quality and professionalism carried out with how they compete and I think what's what's happened in a lot of Olympic sports is it's not about I think we in a lot of parts of the US we view the term professionalism in sports sometimes to be negative because I think a lot of people have the image of athletes just wanting more money and that's what that really means rather than professionalism in terms of having a say in policy change in the effect that it has on your own sport and things like drug testing and who can compete and who can't compete and what are the boundaries of that and what organizations are testing and why are these things not allowed and why are these things allowed and why isn't there more transparency to that that that kind of argument has gone on for a while now in Olympic sports drug testing is a hot button issue but the bigger point than that is how are these decisions made and what and and at what point should they be consulted at least with a percentage of voices in the room that are actually athletes living through it or have lived through it now see see it kind of backwards and and and have a perspective to say wait a second you got nobody understands what you're then putting the athletes through if the goal is to and again it does go back to youth as well if the goal is to have a series of levels so that along the way within that sport you are gaining those life skills and it's sometimes it's about winning sometimes it's about losing it's certainly about competing and what does that all mean are we in agreement then from a policy standpoint that what we're implementing is actually having the effect that what it's meant to have when it's put pen to paper that's part of the the the problem I think that we've had in a lot of Olympic sports is that the intent we may all agree on how it's actually implemented and carried out very different and and and and who responds to that who says it's different well the athletes are the ones that are living through it so what is their voice hasn't happened that way a lot historically because you kind of started in a very amateur athletic you know association way and have morphed from that into kind of the modern day USOC and in defense of the USOC they still have to listen to the IOC who doesn't listen a whole lot and it's not I don't view it as negative talk and putting organizations down I do view it as a realistic view of an athlete who's lived through it in both good and bad and I think one of the things that tends to happen is when the greater population listens to athletes voice their opinion the incorrect kind of response is always well those are spoiled athletes that are just complaining look how much they've gotten well how do you know what they've gotten what if it's an athlete that's a fencer that's never gotten $1 in their career just because swimming is is watched more and is more popular than fencing doesn't mean that does swimming ultimately get more money because they had they get more medals yes in the structure that we currently live in that's correct because there does have to be some level of evaluation and guess what we live in a world where evaluation does have to do with performance doesn't all have to do with performance but there is a chunk of it that performance half that has to come out of that right that's how we're all analyzed in our jobs there is a side to it though that I think with in policy change that we've gotten better certainly the USOC has gotten better the board that I was on was called the Athletes Advisory Council and it was one athlete from every summer and winter sport who then had a voice into the USOC board I certainly think that's a step in the right direction the USOC board now has a policy that they have to have a certain number of athlete members on the board tremendous strides from 20 years ago I think that what's what's happened though that is different than in say professional sports is that the power in professional sports is 100% with the athletes why because they're the biggest names they're the biggest faces in the media they can pick up a phone and the AP wire will run a story in 15 minutes off of what they said that's a different ball game than historically what's happened in Olympic sports that poor fence are out there the AP wires are going to pick up that story unless it's a really differentiating story and that's kind of a harsh reality of where you know my time I think in a lot of those organizations was spent on how do we even that playing field so that when we are passing policy and agreeing on policy it isn't just really directed towards the big Olympic sports that win the most medals you know in fairness to the USOC they're like any other business too they everyone has to has to abide by certain realities that they have to publicize the medals that they win and how that all works then in terms of money so we get that it's not to say that we're all so naive that that every sport is always going to receive the same amount of attention as a result of that but I do think that what you tend to find and especially in the Olympic arena is it is we've gotten better but it's a very steep hill to climb and big challenge and that is to to engage athletes enough while they're competing with their blinders on in their particular sports in the height of their career to think about all of these topics and to act on them and and affect change I think it's a that's a challenge that I see all groups having in terms of athlete participation it's it's which athletes are participating and where are they in their career and what does that mean and it isn't just you have to get all the big names and faces but it is about what I started with which is the people that are in it in the trenches at the moment competing are the best ones to talk to you about well how does that work now how do the the changes to the Olympic Village help or hurt the athletes now because the problem in the Olympic arena is that it is such a big arena that when all these changes happen there's such a delayed response to kind of maybe adjustments made to changes that have been put in place whether it's policies whether it's physicality of venues there is such a delay to get back around to it because the current athletes that are competing I did the same thing say listen all that's well and good I hear you I've spent 22 years of my life for four minutes I'm sorry I'm not going to apologize for wanting to focus a hundred percent of my energy and time on that I think what you're asking and talking about is great but here I am and maybe I can get back around to you when I retire and then you know I can and get on those boards and it's helpful certainly helpful but I think that's a challenge of that that from the bottom all the way to the top in terms of minute decisions to big chunky decisions that's a challenge that the Olympic arena has is athlete voices and then who are the athletes how involved were they and what sports were they in because maybe smaller sports didn't see all of the different issues and changes that that were affected to a games so I think it's it is a it's certainly we're not we're not there but I do think on it in a very positive way we have come a long way even if I go back to 1996 in my first Olympics to now we have come a long way I do think athletes have more of a voice now and I don't think it's in the superficial way of they make more money and therefore they have a voice I actually think it's in the professional way of they care and it matters in the system recognizes so going from the the Olympic arena right to more of say the asphalt or the the fields and I know you're off to Sri Lanka I think this week or you're you know working in you're in power you know you're in the West Bank how does that resonate with in terms of with with how you sort of do your monitoring evaluation we talked a bit about that Maury you commented on that and bringing this field forward in a very real and serious way and the challenges of you know engaging participants while they're participating right and how do you account for that and does it matter have you seen that it matters in you know the way you design your program the way you talk about your impact Brendan I mean I personally think that it all matters it's a multi-stakeholder approach that's going to change this field you know I'm sitting as I was listening to you there's a lot of things I was thinking about but I would argue that yes things have changed but things haven't changed so much I mean when I think about the Olympics I think about 1968 John Carlos Tommy Smith black power I mean and and the notion of you know should these athletes even talk about things that are have political significance and I think that so multi-stakeholder approach is how does the role of the media play into all this and and what do we think about these athletes with respect to their training and their perseverance and their wherewithal to create change they have a lot of power for good or for bad then there's so then there's the media that covers them so we all we ever see are the negative stories about these athletes for once I would love to turn on the TV and see the NFL players that I know that I have a respect shown in a good light and all the positive things that they do because it is so aspirational then there's the role of government that we alone can't do it we're some of while we invest a lot of money we are our investment is is eclipsed by corporate funding so then you need the corporations who for so long have used sport because it is sexy because it garners attention but CSR activities how deep did they go and now they're looking really looking at no longer how many kids went through this program and how many eyeballs watched this program and knew that you know ABM Bev or whoever was the sponsor they're now saying we need traction we need metrics that are going to drive this further and so on and so forth in the US we're seeing the NCAA jump in and looking at at you know variety of different policy changes anywhere from you know still title line issues we're looking at gender equality issues disability issues all the way to should professional should athletes while in college get paid so we are in that we are in that sort of I want to say sort of the perfect storm in a lot of ways because we are recognizing the power of sport but it absolutely needs a multi-stakeholder approach to create the kind of change that we're talking about one one group one one sort of lever is not enough to to create the change and I think it's really we talk about public private partnerships and you know the word of the decade it's it's really all that's all it is is how do all these stakeholders come together and create lasting change using what what we all know love to be a powerful tool to do so Brendan any last comments and then Rebecca last comments and then we'll go to you for a few questions so get your thoughts on we don't too much time for questions but a few great transition all right good Rebecca I mean just like there's been lots put on the table between Tom and more I think building on what Maury said answering that so what questions that you get other stakeholders involved in process and that's where the importance of monitoring evaluation comes in to be able to say this intervention actually led to this change in this community and we have the data to prove it I think it's very important I mean I think one of the things as we go to questions you know more one of the very well-known just you know say leading support for development programs at USAID as well as IDB and other support agonar active in 15 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean and they've invested a lot in monitoring evaluation and you know are able to sort of go and say well you know 70% of our program graduates have gone on to get a job return to school or or start a business and that's that's powerful and I think the more and more that we're able to show that evidence to make that case based on actually engaging you know participants in a real and serious way will help sort of move this this movement if you will you know with the seriousness and the intentionality that it needs so we've got time for a few questions I'm sure we're gonna have a lot more questions than we have time for so we're gonna go one two and three we'll take three kind of World Bank style if you will please keep them brief so that we will have a chance to respond to them or that our panelists will hello everyone I'm Kyle Gibson with the Africa Business Initiative of the US Chamber of Commerce thank you Nicole and everyone of having this discussion I think the message is great and I'm a firm believer in the role of sports and communication and all the positive benefits more we mentioned this and I think this is kind of aimed at Brendan too is just the role of multiple stakeholders in sports we've seen the rise of Western sports primarily football and basketball internationally primarily in Africa Nigeria and South Africa and with this globalizing trend comes the American characteristic of a multi billion dollar industry with entertainment with sponsorships and I guess my question to you is what do you see the role of corporate American you know involvement in these in these partnerships where they're for the better for the worse so thanks yeah good morning ladies and gentlemen my name is Rosemary Sekero I'm the president of Hope for Tomorrow thank you Nicole my organization focus on conflicts and conflicts prevention and conflicts resolution and violence prevention we are doing we do election observations with it in Kenya will be going to do election observation in South Africa and what we are focusing on election observation you know in Africa too many violence my nephew was killed my son was killed into this election so I've taken is an initiative as an observer of election and I don't only observe election we get there before the election working with young people in sports making them responsible and ownership so we want to make them busy with sports and entertainment so by the time election comes there is no violence so that's one thing we are doing with election observe we don't just observe and also we are part of the president of my initiative for young people the 500 will be coming to the United States and Nicole thank you so much I'll bring some of them here so I'll let you know and Brandon you live across my house Conzaka does a lot of work to the community and helps the community so much apart from their sports so my question is how do you work with us and I by the way I come from Kenya you know Kenya is soccer and sports running and we don't have the capability of resources to help the young people how do we work with you from here now that we are all here Ngoas brought us here how do we work with you especially before elections during elections and getting the African young leaders do what you are talking here now because pieces for clop how do you partner and how can you work with us thank you get one more question in thank you I'm Sylvia Gollumbeck with why I say I just want to add one more layer to your very very interesting comments at why I say we work to engage children and youth in service to their communities in such a way that the young volunteers and the communities experience positive change and as I was listening to your comments I was struck by the thought that in so many ways the word sports can can be replaced by the word service we seek the same objectives we have the same values which is a good grounds for collaboration and building on on both fields and in fact at why I say we talk about young people utilizing their passions to serve others to serve their communities and so often we use the example of sports in such a way that if a young person loves basketball loves to swim how about using that passion to teach someone else that does not have access to that experience or set up a game to as a fundraiser for a particular cause in such a way that winning is also associated with helping thank you thank you so thoughts on the three comments questions I think you should do the peacekeeping how we might be able to help we actually had a call this morning that more you referenced so USAID has they've got a new it's called a learning lab and the idea of being that we've got all this information around best practices around curriculum development around coach training around M&E and it's been a bit dispersed no one's kind of either nowhere to find or there's been too much stuff so more in her team has developed a learning lab which you know she can provide these offline some more information about how to access it but it's and it's just getting started so and obviously with technology now we can transmit these learnings to people no matter where they are so that would be my advice in terms of the corporate I think I don't think with what we're doing it's any different and again more is more of an expert than I am but I think it's got to be based on offense authenticity so rather than quick hits and going for publicity if you know looking at a public-private partnership it's around something that the corporate it really identifies with if you have leaders from that corporation that are invested into doing this and being there for a long term and you've got the right NGO partners those are at least the elements that I think you need if it's not based on that that's not being not on that city is some you know quick objective not only is it not like it'll work but that whole issue of do no harm right it's going to do some harm when you come in especially you know with you know short-term money and say we want you to do this so that would be from my personal lessons of dealing with both observing and working with our organizations around corporate partnerships that are successful. Back on partnerships I'm sure you have some thoughts on this piece. I have many thoughts on partnerships but I will keep them brief I mean obviously you know I come out this from the UK side of things but we've we've had a fantastic working relationship with the Premier League on Premier skills and it's because of some of the areas that Brendan mentioned they are heavily invested in the success of this program because it's their brand as well the Premier League is a great soft power asset for the UK it draws people in their coaches come out and draws me in every weekend yeah I mean their coaches come out as part of this program they go and they train coaches in country to then cascade that training on to Premier skills so they're they're very heavily invested and I would agree wholeheartedly with what Brendan said on that I think the other key to that is ensuring that you not only have you know your international NGO partners but also local partners on the ground that are as invested in this program as you are. Just really quickly kind of tying a few of these together so on that note I think there's really nothing wrong with corporations wanting to benefit from the philanthropic work that they do and I think that we need to realize that and so in order to get their sustained involvement and interest they have they have shareholders I mean they they can't just go out and just throw money away and that's all it is so we especially as donors whether it's government or others we and NGOs who are at the receiving end of it we need to better look at at their needs their business needs and that their interests and how our objectives our development objectives and the interests of these NGOs can actually further those corporate interests and as such we'll get greater commitment from them in a much more sort of long-term perspective because I think it is especially if you're looking at Africa I mean I can't think of anywhere in the world that you're thinking about a better hotbed of investments and I think if we can do that if we can truly partner with them from from the very early stages of program development I think there is a way to actually maximize those interests I think the the other sort of conversation that was brought up here was the President Obama's initiative I think you're you're referring to the Yali youth African leadership initiative and I'll relate that to the service comment because this this initiative is really sort of addressing the youth bulge that we're we're seeing in Africa and the the basis of it is leadership but with that comes a strong element of service and and we're actually doing a sport-based program as one of the sort of components of Yali in Senegal based on basketball and working in partnership with the NBA but it really service leadership all those things are really rolled up in a basketball simply said and and it's taking these these athletes not professional athletes not even amateur these are kids that it can come together and actually learn a lot of those things to empower them and these are tomorrow's leaders and and how can we do that through sport this is how we do it we bring them together and empower them and as I transition to Tom just to comment I was privileged enough to have been in State Department in USAID when the young African leaders initiative was first getting underway and when we the first program under that if you will was bringing 150 young African leaders from the 50 you know 50 plus countries to the US and as part of that program there was a service learning experience we we can't call it a full-on sort of voluntary experience but it was the idea of service being part of our culture of leadership development here so I think that point will take in Tom yeah I think just the the third question just to kind of add on to that I mean I think that what you're saying is is kind of the idea of service through sport and vice versa is what we're all saying I think a lot of times it's not it's not as literal as that but I think the underlying themes of what we try to get across it are exactly what you're saying you know from from giving just from the swimming perspective of giving swim clinics around the world with other you know Olympic athletes who aren't swimmers you know being in Europe and in Asia with speed skaters or you know luge athletes or archery athletes that are giving clinics about sports that they don't even participate in serves the point and proves the point that it's not about the sport that they're doing I mean Brendan touched on it too it's yes is it is it a great outcome that it's a competitive basketball game sure but the reality is that you have to give those those kids more credit than that because they get that they're working together they get that the win in it all is they they see the reality of what can happen when you work together when you give of yourself and give of your time and I think that's that's the nice thing that you see in kind of feet on the ground being a part of those types of events and organizations is that it isn't it isn't such a distant kind of idea that whether it's a gold medalist or just an athlete who competed in the sport the kids don't care as much about that they care that they what they latch on to is the idea that you have figured something out that they want to figure out whether that's teamwork whether that's having a passion for something whether that's having setting goals and really working hard to achieve those it can be in any arena it isn't that I think we sometimes don't give those kids enough credit to realize they think outside the box from what you're presenting them they don't take it so literal to mean that like I'm gonna do what Tom is saying only in swimming and a lot of times it has nothing to do with that sport it's just as Brent and Brennan said it well it's that opens the door and it keeps the door open before they close it on you to go wait a second I'm getting hood winked into something that I wouldn't have signed up for before I didn't like math growing up how did I do math my dad raised me in a glass of milk okay let's let's race and then we'll do that's how it it's all leverage points to get into those conversations and I think that what you're saying in the idea of of adding service into that so that it inspires them is exactly what you do but that also is kind of where we started when I got here which was a little bit late but which is the idea of what is it that you're pulling them into and as an organization you have to decide that rather than just hope for the best and go in with you know great emotion and think that the kids are going to fully get well then where does that go I think that's where what has to be thought through and then and then you have to stick to that I think what I have seen just personally is that what you end up having are endeavors that kind of they try this and then maybe 60% of it works but then they jump over here and then they jump over here and then they're not identified with one kind of goal in mind and it seems simplistic but I think it's very easy and it's true even in small businesses to kind of jump from one thing to the next and the next hot topic as to what works and kids bought they read into that they can sense that if you're not in it for the long haul that it's not it's not true to them so I think that ties into the corporate side of it too is that it all is very transparent well I can't think of a better note to end on than that so I hope you all join me in thanking more a Brendan Rebecca and Tom it's been a fascinating conversation I couldn't be more well timed so I hope it'll help us all go through these games maybe with a different a different thought process and and and think about something more than metals although I of course I'm going team USA so thank you again for joining us thanks for folks that we're online and on Twitter and stay tuned for more thanks