Grassroot Soccer (GRS) is delighted to be a third round New Partners Initiative grantee. Our proposed project contributes to the PEPFAR prevention objective which seeks to avert a total of 12 million HIV infections, pushes the field of sport for development forward, and is the basis of the Football for an HIV Free Generation Initiative in South Africa (F4 SA).

GRS is a non-profit that is using the power of soccer in the fight against HIV and AIDS by providing youth with the knowledge, skills, and support to remain HIV free. GRS has been awarded PEPFAR funding to launch and sustain the F4 Initiative in South Africa. The overall goal of this initiative is to build on our current successes, networks and partnerships across the country in order to educate more than 230,000 youth over the course of the project and reach in excess of 3 million people on a quarterly basis with prevention and stigma reduction messages over a three-year period (2009-2011), using soccer as the universal language.

This goal will be achieved through three primary strategic objectives, namely to: 1. promote improved health-seeking behavior among youth aged 12-18; 2. build the capacity of community educators to deliver, monitor, and sustain HIV and AIDS prevention programming; and 3. increase demand for and uptake of HIV-related services (e.g. VCT and ART).

The defining of strategic objectives and overall design and planning process undertaken, take into account the most up-to-date and relevant findings on successful HIV prevention models. Of particular interest is growing consensus among experts that young people need to be reached early, even before their sexual debut, with skills-based HIV education that provides focused messages of healthy behavior. Abstinence or delay of sexual debut by even a year has a significant impact on the health and well being of adolescents and affects how this epidemic progresses in communities.

Planned activities align with PEPFAR's strategy to support activities that help young people develop the self-esteem to delay sexual debut, make informed choices and develop communication skills to say no. Like no other time in history, the game of soccer has the power to reach beyond its boundaries to bring young people, communities, nations, and the global community together in an effort to reverse rates of HIV infection and transmission.

GRS will engage in the following activities over the course of the project to meet our objectives: (1) implement the Skillz activities-based HIV prevention and life skills curriculum in and out schools using various intervention types; (2) develop and distribute IEC materials (particularly Skillz Magazine) focused on health promotion, gender based violence, stigma, and access to HIV-related services; (3) run peer-led community outreach activities that will strengthen our outreach to secondary beneficiaries; (4) produce a training toolkit for Skillz Training of Coaches (ToC) courses; (5) design and deliver training courses for teachers and community role models, high level facilitators, and project managers; (6) utilize the Skillz Coach's DVD by incorporating it into the training of coaches and distributing it to school teachers; (7) enhance staff development to build strong local leadership internally and within Implementing Partners; (8) produce a Skillz VCT Tournament toolkit and subsequently implement Skillz Tournaments in various sites, providing access to and incentive for uptake of HIV-related services; (9) engage the private sector in fighting HIV and AIDS through sport; (10) leverage soccer role models in above activities to promote and destigmatize HIV-related services; and (11) capitalize on the opportunity of the 2010 World Cup to strengthen the global response to fighting HIV and AIDS, particularly through sport.

Football For an HIV Free Generation (F4) South Africa With support from PEPFAR, World AIDS Day 2008 marked the launch of the Football For an HIV Free

Generation (F4) Initiative. This new partnership between GRS, the African Broadcast Media Partnership, Coxswain Social Investment plus (CSI+), loveLife, the Kaiser Family Foundation and UNAIDS, strives to capitalize on the excitement surrounding the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ by using football to fight HIV and AIDS in Africa. This new, continent-wide HIV prevention initiative combines a sustained media campaign with community-level outreach and education programs using soccer to promote healthy living and responsible choices among African youth.

F4 South Africa (F4 SA) was the first F4 Initiative launched, and programming began in December 2008. GRS runs programming from flagship sites in Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Kimberley and Bloemfontein and as of September 2009 at a total of 16 unique geographic locations in South Africa. GRS operates in every province in South Africa except for Mpumalanga.

Skillz F4 SA is brought to life through the delivery of Skillz, a comprehensive prevention package consisting of a curriculum used at the community level, supplemental national and international mass media messaging, and a global coordinated advocacy campaign that uses soccer to promote healthy living and responsible choices among African youth.

The Skillz curriculum focuses on building basic life skills that help boys and girls adopt healthy behaviors and live risk-free. Through a series of interactive games, activities and discussions, students gain a tangible understanding of HIV and AIDS and get a chance to practice the skills necessary for sustainable behavior change. Key curricular topics include making healthy decisions, avoiding risks, building support networks, reducing stigma and discrimination, increasing knowledge about testing and treatment, addressing gender norms and assessing values.

F4 SA combines years of experience working in school systems with a commitment to employing evidence-based strategies to design and implement novel community-based activities which fall under the Skillz umbrella brand and utilize the Skillz curriculum. The key intervention types through which GRS implements this strategy, Skillz Core, Skillz Street, Skillz Tournament, & Skillz Holiday form a diverse and powerful menu of youth-targeted interventions. Each intervention type is grounded in the Skillz curriculum and language and communicates consistent and reinforcing messages, aimed at improving health- seeking behaviors among youth aged 12-18.

Skillz Core This intervention is focused on the implementation of the complete Skillz curriculum with youth both in

school and out of school. The core Skillz curriculum consists of eight 45-minute sessions that use an activities-based approach to deliver HIV prevention and life skills education. The majority of Skillz Core interventions are delivered during the school day, either by teachers or community role models, in defined Life Orientation classes, allowing for structured and regular access to targeted beneficiaries.

Skillz Street Skillz Street provides a unique and community-oriented life skills and HIV prevention soccer experience. This intervention takes the form of structured soccer leagues that are gender-specific. Small-sided matches will be played by "street" rules that reinforce principles/values essential for healthy social development. This will include self-imposed rules, fair play awards, and team discussions before and after matches to make players responsible for resolving conflicts on the field. In addition, trained Skillz coaches will facilitate appropriate activities from the Skillz curriculum. Street league players will receive Skillz magazine and use the magazine as a peer education tool. Leagues are monitored and points are awarded for fair play, peer-education, and soccer.

Skillz Street focuses heavily on creating girls' street leagues in underserved communities. Linked to both the Skillz curriculum and Skillz magazine, Skillz Street will tackle barriers to girls' participation in soccer and access to community health services.

Skillz Tournaments GRS' innovative Skillz Tournament model is aimed at gathering a large number of community members while promoting testing, counseling and Know Your Status messages. Using the power of football as a tool to bring youth together, these events increase awareness about HIV testing and treatment services and empower youth to know their status by promoting positive peer pressure. Onsite rapid HIV testing and immediate enrollment into care and treatment provided by trusted partners bridges the gap between HIV prevention and treatment services, and demonstrates the power of collective action in communities.

Skillz Holiday School holidays are high-risk periods for youth, as they often have little supervision and few opportunities for structured activities. To meet this need, GRS has developed weeklong "Skillz Holiday" programs. These interventions see approximately 100 youth participants and no less than ten Coaches, in order to maximize youth-coach interaction over a short period of time. Each program runs for four hours per day over five days, with two Skillz activities delivered each morning and a Skillz Street league in the afternoon. The final day of the program features a "World Cup" style tournament and celebration, with parents and community members present.

Skillz Coaches GRS focuses on the transfer of the necessary skills, tools and content to community educators (Skillz Coaches) to enhance their ability to implement effective HIV prevention activities and deliver the four major intervention types with South African youth. The Skillz curriculum enables teachers, community members, local government, and local CBO/FBOs to implement and sustain HIV prevention and life skills activities. This is achieved through a wide range of workshops, knowledge-sharing platforms, and ongoing mentorship and support from GRS staff. At all levels, GRS provides extensive and in depth education, training, and support to individuals trained as Skillz Coaches. As Skillz Coaches are directly responsible for delivery of the program, the quality of the interventions that they deliver and the caring relationships that they develop with F4 SA's primary beneficiaries are key to the program's success.

Skillz Coaches are comprised of both community role models and teachers who have participated in a 5- day Training of Coaches (ToC) workshop. ToCs focus on facilitation of the Skillz curriculum and HIV and AIDS education but will also provide basic training in inter-personal communication, peer counseling, gender issues, life and coping skills, and psychosocial support.

Skillz Magazine In addition to discovery-based education, Skillz participants also receive Skillz magazine, a unique communications tool—featuring many of the world's top soccer stars—that helps them share their knowledge with the community at large as peer educators.

Skillz magazine was created as part of F4's commitment to supporting school and community-based interventions with age-appropriate broadcast and print media reaching millions of African youth. The magazine is a quarterly 8-page health communication magazine that uses soccer language and celebrities to deliver life skills and HIV prevention messages to youth.

Developed in conjunction with Skillz interventions and community outreach, Skillz magazine links readers to health services, promotes health-seeking behaviors, and reinforces messages from the Skillz curriculum. Moreover, the magazine is a continuum of the Skillz curriculum, as its "Coach's Corner" features new activities aligned with concepts in the core curriculum. Each of the twelve editions to be produced between 2009 and 2011 will focus on a particular HIV and AIDS and life skills related theme, such as multiple concurrent partners, gender-based violence, testing and treatment, relationships, challenging gender norms, etc. GRS has begun working with leading organizations and experts to research the most relevant topics for each edition and align the magazine's language and themes accordingly. Skillz Coaches and teachers will use Skillz magazine to deliver educational activities with

young people on an ongoing basis.

In collaboration with Avusa Education, 560,000 copies of Skillz magazine are distributed quarterly throughout South Africa as an insert in the popular Sunday Times and Sowetan newspapers, in addition to direct delivery to over 3,000 South African schools in the Avusa Education network.

World Cup: South Africa 2010 The 2010 FIFA World Cup™ in South Africa provides a unique and powerful opportunity to make a lasting impact on the HIV pandemic. For the first time, the world's most-watched sporting event—with billions of viewers and millions of visitors—will be played on the African continent.

Due to our proven track record, existing relationships, and large scale projects across South Africa GRS is in a unique position to engage virtually all key players—including major corporations, African governments, UN agencies, community-based organizations, and FIFA itself—to ensure that the 2010 World Cup leads to a long-lasting legacy for Africa's fight against HIV and AIDS.

GRS' efforts surrounding the World Cup are not merely another HIV awareness campaign. Rather, they form the launching point for a multi-country social movement with potential to truly reverse the epidemic. All programs are part of a long-term and sustainable initiative being run across the continent: the Football for an HIV-Free Generation (F4) Initiative. F4 seeks to inspire young Africans to take action in their communities, build the capacity of local organizations and governments to sustain prevention programs to ensure long-term impact, and scientifically demonstrate the impact of soccer-based HIV prevention, thus attracting both donors and community and world leaders alike as champions for HIV prevention.