Bridging the Gaps Ultimate Frisbee Youth Camps

Bridging the Gaps    May 21-25, 2015    Ahmedabad

Less than one month from now 125 teens and 35 coaches from across India will gather in Ahmedabad (Gujarat) for the third edition of Bridging the Gaps, a unique sport-art sleep-away camp designed to teach life skills development to its participants.  We facilitate their bonding as teammates over sport (Ultimate Frisbee*) and art-based personal development activities. During the course of the camp, they overcome barriers, challenge themselves to develop skills and relationships and learn to celebrate the diversity of other's experiences.

Our camp intentionally brings together participants and coaches from various socio-economic, geographic and cultural backgrounds. In fact, the majority of our participants have never traveled outside their communities and would not be able to afford to attend camp without financial aid. 

Why?

In India, we live in a tremendously unequal society. Our mission is to inspire a generation of Indian youth to bridge the socio-economic gaps created by poverty, gender and class, through a uniquely designed sport-art camp.  Our camps build and foster important values such as gender equality and open-mindedness, that translate into impactful benefits to both players and coaches.

Where? This May's camp will be held in Ahmedabad, the largest city in the western state of Gujarat and home to many of the first Ultimate Frisbee players in India who spread Ultimate as part of Indicorps (sustainable development projects with grassroots orgs).    

We’ve done this before....and we'll do it again!

Our first two camps, held in Surat (May 2014) and Auroville (December 2014), each brought together 120 teen campers and 30+ coaches for a 5 day experience of a lifetime!  This May will be our third edition of Bridging the Gaps camp and we'll continue to run camps throughout India with your help!

Our three tier model - how participants, youth leaders and coaches benefit:

Many of our coaches and youth leaders are from the same communities as our participants. They face a similar uphill climb with regards to poverty, gender and class based discrimination.

Our coaches and youth leaders attend coach training sessions before camp begins. This prepares our coaches and youth leaders to facilitate meaningful discussions, teach the technical Ultimate Frisbee curriculum and conduct team building exercises.

How you can help: 

• Contribute to our Indiegogo campaign and help us to:

  (a) cover costs of transport/accommodation/meals for participants/coaches;(b) purchase discs, cones, whistles, plain t-shirts (for teens to create their own jerseys!) and art supplies 

• Spread the word

• Help us get in touch with other sponsors

*Why Ultimate Frisbee:

For this camp, we have chosen to use Ultimate Frisbee because of how well it lends itself to promote personal development and intercultural exchange.

Ultimate is unique and best suited for Bridging the Gaps because it is:

• Co-ed & non-contact:  Boys and girls play together on a team - an aberration to cultural practices within Indian communities where boys and girls rarely mix in sport.

• Self refereed:  Contested fouls are settled through discussion between the players involved. This facilitates open communication between players and teaches participants how to resolve conflict. It is rare for a sport to allow for this type of player-to-player dialogue.

• Spirit Circles:  Unique to Ultimate Frisbee, Spirit Circles have players of both teams sit in a large circle post-match to discuss the level of sportsmanship during the match.

Meet the organizers:

Liz Haynes | https://www.facebook.com/liz.haynes.982

Combining her passion for sports and expertise in nonprofit and corporate finance, Liz works with a sports-based after school program for underprivileged teens in Chennai, India as well as organizes Bridging the Gaps, India's first ever youth sleep-away Ultimate Frisbee camp. 

Mahesh Ramamurty | https://www.facebook.com/mahesh.ramamurthy

Mahesh is the Joint Managing Director at Vibromech. He is passionate about building educational opportunities for underprivileged youth in India and has held leadership positions in several projects channeling corporate expertise and funds for community development.

Sangeeta Isvaran | https://www.facebook.com/sangeeta.isvaran

Sangeeta is a dancer-performer who has developed the Wind Dancer technique -  building programs in marginalized, underprivileged communities using the arts in education, empowerment and conflict resolution across 40 countries.

Manix Narayanan

Manix serves on the advisory board of UPAI (Ultimate Players Association of India). He is an avid Ultimate Frisbee player, creating sports for development programmes and helping grow the sport across India.

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