Youth Leadership initiatives: Basketball for Climate Change in Greece

CRETE (Greece) - Six months ago, the FIBA Foundation launched a global Youth Leadership Seminar with the aim of educating Youth Leaders globally and giving them tools to create positive impact in their own communities through basketball.

The monthly sessions give tools and support the 30 Youth Leaders to enhance their Basketball For Good initiatives.

Many Youth Leaders are already running their programs and helping communities worldwide. One of them is Zacharias Stagakis from Greece. The 29-year-old lawyer lives on the island of Crete. Since 2016, he has collaborated with the Cretan Basketball Teams Union while having been appointed recently as a scientific advisor on sports for development.

“My desire is to utilize the legacy of basketball in my country to initiate positive changes within the Greek society” explained Zacharias. Although I acknowledge that sport cannot be the remedy for all societal and developmental ills, I strongly believe that targeted athletic programs can contribute successfully to a range of goals. And I hope my vision will inspire young people to invest time and hope in both basketball and knowledge."

Zacharias is interested in using basketball to address the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG 13 - climate change. He is developing programs where basketball is used to bring awareness to the issue.

He recently organized a basketball and recycling event with this specific goal in collaboration with the Cretan Basketball Teams Union (EKASK) and one of its basketball clubs, "Chania BC”.

The week before the event the young participant aged 5 to 12 years old had to collect recyclable items and bring them to the stadium. Different teams were created during the day and the players had to shoot the items in the recyclable baskets that were made for this purpose. The team that managed to put faster all the recyclable items in its basket was declared the winner.

“Through this gamification of the recycling process” explained Zacharias, “we managed to raise the environmental awareness of the young players. Their coaches explained in detail the importance of recycling while clarifying how the recycling process should be done”.

He concluded “I am really proud of the success that this event had and the enjoyment that kids showed during the basketball recycling game”.

The event was a great success and is set to take place in different clubs throughout Greece as soon as pandemic measures allow it.

The Youth Leaders are currently halfway through the program and have learned about important themes such as fundraising, diversity and gender equality, conflict management and entrepreneurship. They will soon receive specific mentoring to help them further their Basketball For Good projects.

About Youth Leadership:

The FIBA Foundation’s Youth Leadership program is a global Basketball For Good initiative giving youths the skills and opportunities to create a brighter future for themselves and their communities. This program teaches leadership and life skills through 3x3 basketball. The Youth Leaders are supported to create their own community impact project, growing the Basketball For Good family worldwide. Please contact us if you want to know more about our programs or if you are interested to work with us.