2018 LB070 Sport and Humanitarian Assistance Phase 2 (SAHA 2) Project As the Syria crisis enters its seventh year, more than 4.4 million Syrian refugees are living in neighboring countries. In one of War Child’s recent assessments, out of 919 Syrian refugee children, 915 children express the feeling that they have no access to safe space to play. Violence, exploitation and abuse against children in the home, communities and schools, as well as an alarming rate of drug abuse, are recognized as among the main child protection concerns in Lebanon. In addition, families increasingly resort to negative coping mechanisms, relying on children as young as five as the primary breadwinners to make ends meet. Children are subjected to exploitation and risky behaviors in the work place, within their communities and even in their home places with their own families. Adolescents aged 12 – 17 represent a critical cohort that need specific attention and investment. Youth from this age group are largely missing out on psychosocial support, education and skills building programmes as they are increasingly either forced to stay indoors for their safety – the case for many adolescents girls – or to work to help provide income for the family – the case for many adolescents boys. Adolescents will also be the first among the generation of children affected by the Syrian conflict to be called upon to help mend torn social fabric and rebuild broken economies. The potential role of young of this age group as agents for change – positive or otherwise – is evident in political developments across the region in the last decade. Youth can and should be a positive force in a community with their desire for action and change. Improving the psychosocial health of adolescents, while empowering them, is critical for achieving development as they are the backbone to every country and they can change the future of the nation with their wellbeing. Given this context, there is a need for a project that will promote social stability and bring together different communities from different cultural, religious and socio-economic backgrounds through a community-based approach that listens to the needs of community members and supports them in developing responses. Well organized, inclusive sports activities focus on life skills and social development, and contribute to building relationships, growing communicative skills, connecting individuals to communities and fostering a sense of belonging and ownership, and creating an open space for dialogue. General Objective. Improved Social Cohesion through sports and play to support peaceful co-existence and youth development in vulnerable communities. Expected Results: 1. Increased Social Cohesion between host and refugee communities through empowering youth to act as multipliers of information and life skills, and as community mobilizers. 2. Young people, parents and caregivers have improved abilities and skills to act as agents of social cohesion leading to the creation of more protective and inclusive communities. 3. Access to safe inclusive spaces is secured. If vulnerable children, youth, their caregivers, community members and relevant stakeholders in targeted communities have an enhanced understanding of addressing exclusion and protection concerns and engaging in positive preventive actions, and if community-driven innovative solutions are advanced with the skills, tools and expertise for successful impact and sustainability, then social cohesion and peacebuilding is promoted, empowerment of marginalized youth and children advanced, and community engagement strengthened. This change will contribute to countering drivers/risk factors of social exclusion and strengthening protection resilience among children, youth and the community at large. Using sports and arts would serve as an open platform that incubates and channels youth capabilities into a more positive direction and would also serve as a tool for reducing modifiable risk factors and strengthening protective/preventive factors in such a high-risk setting for conflict and exclusion. Sport is being used effectively to reduce youth vulnerability to gang and drug recruitment by offering an alternative way to achieve a sense of belonging and purpose, providing a reason to remain in their communities, helping them to adopt a more critical perspective toward involvement in conflict, and enabling them to envision more peaceful ways to play a valued social role. The purpose of sport for peace initiatives is to harness the power of sport to support peace-building activities. Sports alone cannot prevent conflict or build peace. However, it can contribute to broader, more comprehensive efforts in a range of important ways such as building relationships among conflicting groups, connecting individuals to communities and fostering a sense of belonging and ownership, and creating an open space for dialogue. As such, War Child, the Royal Netherlands Football Association (KNVB WorldCoaches) and Right to Play have designed a youth leaders project that will tackle the issues of social stability, youth leaders development and peaceful co-existence and that will give youth leaders a greater engagement in civic society and communities they live in. Through the pilot intervention of SaHA in 2016 - 2017, the project partners were able to: (1) Strengthen relations between the refugee and host communities using football as an entry point to engage communities while providing children and young people with a healthy outlet during their free time; (2) Provide life skills and psychosocial support to Lebanese and non-Lebanese youth, using football as an entry point as well as developing and supporting youth leaders; (3) Better protect children from abuse, violence, and exploitation by raising awareness within communities and by building the capacity of local actors involved in the child protection system. Phase 2 of the project capitalizes on achieved results, lessons learned and recommendations of the pilot phase to design an intervention that responds to the needs of the communities it serves and that ensures that all components and activities’ packages are designed following a community-based, participatory approach with target beneficiaries and communities. The target groups are Lebanese, Palestinian and Syrian youth leaders and children living in most vulnerable communities (youth leaders: ages 18 and above, and children: ages 12 to 17). Child Activity