Right To Play is a global organization that uses the transformative power of play to educate and empower children facing adversity. Through playing sports and games, Right To Play helps one million children weekly in more than 20 countries to build essential life skills and better futures, while driving lasting social change.

Founded in 2000 by four-time Olympic gold medalist and social entrepreneur Johann Olav Koss, Right To Play is headquartered in Toronto, Canada and has national offices in Canada, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States and regional offices in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. Their programs are facilitated by more than 600 international staff and 13,500 volunteer Coaches.

Mission: Right To Play's mission is to use sport and play to educate and empower children and youth to overcome the effects of poverty, conflict and disease in disadvantaged communities.

Vision: Right To Play's vision is to create a healthy and safe world through the power of sport and play.

Program Resources

They partner with Ministries of Education to promote policy change, curriculum development, and teacher training. Together, they tackle basic education and child development needs.  Their work focuses on four development impact areas: basic education and child development, health promotion and disease prevention, conflict resolution and peace education, and community development.  They do this through three key activities:

Resource Development

Right To Play designs and develops program resources (specially-designed material that uses sport and play as a tool for learning). Their expert educators and experienced trainers put their programs into practice as they:

• -Promote experiential learning and holistic development using sport and play, games and activities;
• -Emphasize the Reflect-Connect-Apply learning methodology, which allows learners to examine their experiences, relate those experiences to what they already know, and apply the learning in their daily lives;
• -Promote inclusion of children who may be marginalized for reasons of gender, religion, ability, ethnicity, disability, or social background.

These resources include a Trainer’s Manual for the training of Leaders/Coaches and a Leader’s Manual which focuses on teaching and learning strategies, games and activities for children and youth.

Training

They make participatory training workshops possible for Right To Play’s activities and resources. Workshops are practical, interactive and designed to support staff and volunteers in their roles within the organization.

Monitoring and Evaluation

They systematically gather and examine information from all project locations for the purpose of improving project planning, resources and program delivery.

Their Reach

They reach one million children in regular weekly activities and 49% of those children are female. Right To Play is in more than 20 countries including programs in Benin, Burundi, Canada, China, Ethiopia, Ghana, Jordan, Lebanon, Liberia, Mali, Mozambique, Pakistan, Palestinian Territories (West Bank and Gaza), Peru, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, Thailand and Uganda.

Their programs are facilitated by more than 600 international staff and 13,500 volunteer Coaches. Coaches are local leaders and teachers who are trained in their specially designed programming. They implement the programs based on the needs of their communities. They also encourage leadership at all ages by providing youth with unique opportunities. Junior Leaders, some as young as eight years old, become empowered through participating in Right To Play programs.

Some of their programs involve training and technical assistance. They work with partner organizations in Bolivia, Colombia, Kenya, Norway, Panama, Peru and the United States where they train local organizations in Right To Play’s unique methodology to implement programs.