THURSDAY, MAY 23, 2024 | by Jocelyn Titone
An experiential learning course in Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) has had a lasting impact on both Brock students and the local community.
A group of nearly two dozen Sport Management students and women’s rugby players spent two weeks in TCI last term teaching local children and youth rugby skills while sharing messages of resilience, empowerment and education.
The fourth-year Sport for Development course led by Associate Professor of Sport Management Laura Cousens investigates how sport can achieve broader social objectives by identifying social issues unique to the community, designing a sport development program to address them and then delivering the program within the community.
“Several reports, mainly from the United Nations, identify high dropout rates for both elementary and high school students in the TCI,” said Cousens. “Our main goal with the project was to encourage children to stay in school and not join gangs, which have been growing in recent years.”
To accomplish this, Brock students collaborated with the Turks and Caicos Islands Rugby Football Union (TCIRFU) to organize and deliver rugby programming to more than 1,000 children and teens in elementary and high schools on three islands in TCI. They taught participants the fundamental skills needed to play the sport and encouraged them to join the team.
“It’s a stay-in-school club disguised as a rugby club,” said Cousens. “If children play rugby, they’ll go to school.”
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Source: The Brock News
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