Georgia | Georgian Police as Leaders in Athletics for Youth | 28 Apr 2015

In the second half of April 2015, all the U.S. Based Exchange participants started to implement their community-based sports initiatives as per their action plans .All of the local initiatives incorporated the involvement of male and female police officers at the community level and were locally supported.

In April 2015 each of the exchange participants held information meetings in their communities and organizations sharing the U.S experience and lessons learned.

As a result of continuous communication and coordination among the exchange participants, 22 pilot schools in six cities/towns of Georgia have been selected for program participation:

• Tbilisi (the capital) – Kvemo Kartli – 5 schools • Rustavi – Kvemo Kartli – 1 school • Kutaisi – Imereti – 10 schools • Zugdidi – Samegrelo – 3 schools • Senaki – Samegrelo – 2 schools • Poti – Samegrelo – 1 school

U.S. Based Exchange Participants put their efforts together to establish the school-based basketball teams in each pilot school and elaborate the schedule for training and coaching sessions as well as regular professional development activities for the Police Officers and School Resource Officers, who acted as coaches and event organizers.

Natalia Chrelashvili, Head of Administration of the Ministry of Education and Science School Resource Officers Department lobbied for the concept, which implied the allocation of school resource officers in each pilot school. The rationale behind the concept was the busy schedule of the police officers, which did not allow them to participate in the training and coaching sessions at school more frequently than twice a month. As agreed with the administration of the School Resource Officers’ Department of MES and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, SROs started to act as day-to –day coaches of the school-based basketball teams, whereas, the assigned Police Officers visited the schools at least twice a month in order to participate in the training sessions and organize informal talks and interaction with the youth engaged in school-based teams .Informal talks centered round such topics as:

• What is Legal Socialization; • Who is a Police Officer; • Adolescent and Law; • Civic Responsibility; • Healthy Lifestyle; • Harmful Habits and their Results; • Bulling and its consequences; • Juvenile and violence; • Organized crime.

All the police officers assigned to the program had been previously trained through PH International’s INL funded GE CALLS (Georgia Community Alliances and Linkages for Legal Socialization) program that strives to reduce juvenile delinquency through establishing positive image of police among youth and encouraging community groups to plan and adopt new programs that reduce juvenile crime.

Working with the school-based basketball teams involved extra-curricular activities, such as attending regional and country-wide professional basketball games, excursions and visits to local police departments.

On June 21-26, 2015 GE PLAY working group organized Regional School-based Street Basketball (3x3) Championships in Tbilisi, Kutaisi and Zugdidi for all the pilot schools participating in the program. Regional competitions coincided with the American exchange to Georgia and gave the guest boys’ and girls’ teams an opportunity to play against Georgian adolescents. Each regional tournament included clinics for coaches and players and was a great success. The winning teams in each region were awarded with special tournament cups, medals and certificates.

In order to ensure the program sustainability and provide mechanisms for program expansion to other schools, cities and regions, GE PLAY working group has started to work on the development of a multi-lateral Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which will be signed by PH International, Ministry of Youth and Sports, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Basketball Federation of Georgia in the Fall of 2015. The MoU will formalize the roles and responsibilities of each of the parties in promotion of the model piloted through GE PLAY and will ensure sustainable partnership and collaboration after the grant has finished.

As part of the their updated group action plan, GE PLAY working group is planning to hold a country-wide GE PLAY tournament in the late Fall of 2015, where the winners of the Regional School-based Street Basketball (3x3) Championship will have an opportunity to compete against one another for the title of the Champion of GE PLAY Country Wide Basketball Tournament. The said competition will enhance the enthusiasm and motivation of the GE PLAY school-based basketball teams and will contribute to increased sustainability of the program outputs. It is believed that both regional as well as country-wide school-basketball competitions will continue to be held and become even more large-scale after the GE-PLAY grant has finished.