Lessons from Invictus applied to community development

After watching the film Invictus, I learned a lot about methods for community development. The movie stars Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon. The movie takes place in South Africa and Morgan Freeman place the role of Nelson Mandela. The movie begins when Nelson has recently been released from jail, law has recently been passed allowing blacks to vote, and he is struggling to balance racial tensions within the South African community. When at the springbok’s game Nelson notices that the colored folks in the crowd cheer against their own countries team due to the white dominance within the team and its racist past. Nelson identifies this as an opportunity and works through this sports team to unify the countries separated community. Nelson starts by meeting with Matt Damon the captain of the national South African rugby team vaguely hinting his intensions to use the Springboks to bring this country together, and that he wants the Springboks to win despite strongly despising them years ago.

                Aside from the primary goal for the Springboks to win, Nelson requested the Springboks preform community outreach within the schools. Working with the nation’s youth, and gaining their support is a great way to begin reshaping a community. Starting community development with the youth is a great place to start. It shows both to the parents and the children that you care, and also changes the attitudes of the up and coming generation. Nelson intended to use this to help remove some of the color barrier since the large majority of the team was white it would gain the support of the country to rally behind the team in unison before the upcoming rugby tournament which would be hosted in South Africa.

                Sport is a great way to create friendships and bonds regardless of color. When playing on the same team as another person, it doesn’t matter your differences because you need to work together to succeed. A team needs to work as a single unit and doesn’t have time to worry about issues like the color of your skin. They must be one big extended family.

                Another way that sport is a great way to develop a community is it can be used as a common interest or goal. Nelson knew the country was hungry to win, and it didn’t matter what color your skin was. If you supported the same team you were practically best friends. They showed this effectively throughout the film near the end when the South African team won the tournament and the white man celebrated with the black body guard, as well as when the white policemen celebrated the victory with the little black boy. With the introduction of a common interest or goal a community can develop. It can be a long process, but slowly and surely the color barriers were removed.

Benifits of extraciricular activities for children

I recently read the article Participation in sports and cultural activities among aboriginal children and youth https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=14giANHzYcYw0jXLYX5FjCLBJ9em5uI7hMYla54jIFhq2XJEa3C9j9rJB3JsD&hl=en&authkey=CMm4kZoF&pli=1.

                This article is about methods to help develop the aboriginal community’s youth primarily through extracurricular activity. According to the article recent studies have shown that extracurricular activities can and will have a variety of positive effects in the development of the aboriginal youth community. Extracurricular activities can be anything from music lessons to sports and athletics programs or even cultural activities. Participation can benefit the children with greater academic performance, improved physiological performance, and positive friendships. Physical exercise is also closely linked to improved development such as increased self-esteem, greater mental awareness, and prevention of negative habits such as smoking.

                Living off of native reserves has also had great influence on how many children participate in extracurricular activities. Roughly two thirds of aboriginal children living off reservations tend to participate in sports at least once a week. Children with higher educated parents and higher household incomes were also more likely to participate in extracurricular activities. Keeping busy also encourages children to participate in more activities. Studies show that aboriginal children who spend less than 4 hours watching TV or playing videos games are more likely to participate in extracurricular activities. Studies have shown that children who take up an activity such as volunteering, music lessons, etc. are also more likely to take up a sport versus the children that devote more time to television and video games are less likely to do either.  

                I agree with all of the facts pointed out within this article, and I think these statistics should not just be restricted to aboriginal children as the same results can likely be derived from a child of any other birth origin when participating in extracurricular activities. Participation in other curricular activities will encourage development of more skills and keep an active mind rather than spending so much time watching television. By participating in extracurricular activities it allow them to develop social skills, life skills, and long lasting friendships with other children with similar interests.

                Community development can frequently begin with the youth of the community and the process can take anywhere from a week to years depending on the change. By giving their youth a strong start on life it will allow the aboriginal community to grow, develop, and get away from past habits that maybe perceived as negative.  Regardless extracurricular activities are a key piece in youth development, which in turn strengthens the developing community.  Sports and extracurricular activity are not only a great way to help the youth grow, but also a great way to get the parents out, meeting and greeting. By getting the parents to talk hopefully this will create ideas and inspire the parents to press towards greater development within their own community. Anytime people with different ideas or opinions meet, thoughts are stirred and hopefully an urge to improve something within their community emerges.