Category: Löwenstark – Football meets culture

Final tournament of “Löwenstark – Fußball trifft Kultur” 2023

Frankfurt, 10.7.2023: For the second time, the 30 schools participating in the “Löwenstark – Fußball trifft Kultur” project played out the winners of the final tournament.
At the SV Blau-Gelb grounds in Frankfurt’s Niddapark, the teams from Münzenberger School, Niddaschule and IGS Mainspitze came out on top in their respective age groups.

Over 500 children from all over the Rhine-Main region traveled to Frankfurt to take part in the big final tournament of “Löwenstark – Fußball trifft Kultur” for the second time since 2022.
The goal of everyone involved: the trophies in the respective age groups.
And yet the final tournament is more than just a sporting showdown.
The event is the annual highlight of the integrative educational project, in which around 700 pupils took part last year.

The project combines soccer, language and culture and offers participants a motivating, low-threshold offer that promotes their language and social skills and gets them moving in the long term.
In this way, “Löwenstark – Fußball trifft Kultur” reaches children from educationally disadvantaged social backgrounds in particular, who often feel less addressed by regular school lessons and benefit particularly from the additional support.
Training and learning takes place twice a week in two halves at 30 schools.
In addition, various workshops and excursions were offered to broaden the children’s cultural horizons.
There were also activities during the vacations that combined soccer and language in a fun way.

Throughout the school year, the final tournament acted as a motivating and unifying element.
The children prepared for the big day together with their project teachers and coaches and experienced cohesion, fair play and team spirit at the tournament.
The tournament was the conclusion and highlight of the second year of the “Löwenstark – Fußball trifft Kultur” project. With this special regional edition of the nationwide educational program “Fußball trifft Kultur”, LitCam and the Hessian Ministry of Culture made it possible to hold “Fußball trifft Kultur” at 30 additional schools in the Rhine-Main region this school year.
Funded by the “Löwenstark – Der BildungsKICK” initiative of the Hessian Ministry of Culture, “Löwenstark – Fußball trifft Kultur” has been offered at 26 primary and four secondary schools in the Rhine-Main region since the start of the 2021/2022 school year.

“Löwenstark – Fußball trifft Kultur” is run by around 60 dedicated project teachers and coaches who ensure the successful implementation of the project at the respective schools.
The team consists primarily of teacher training and sports students as well as certified coaches who use their enthusiasm for soccer to promote the children’s social and language skills.

Comments on the tournament

Karin Plötz, Director of LitCam, was delighted with the successful implementation of the first year of the “Löwenstark – Fußball trifft Kultur” project: “I am delighted that we were able to successfully implement the ‘Löwenstark – Fußball trifft Kultur’ project at 30 schools in the Rhine-Main region thanks to the funding from ‘Löwenstark – Der BildungsKICK’. The final tournament at the end of the first year of the project was an absolute highlight for the participating children. The children’s enthusiasm as they played for the trophy shows the motivational power of soccer.”

Minister of Culture Prof. Dr. Alexander Lorz explained: “In the time of school closures, much of what ‘Fußball trifft Kultur’ focuses on has been neglected: exercise, learning German and social interaction. That’s why I’m so grateful to LitCam gGmbH for specifically supporting children and young people with their program. The large number of pupils taking part speaks for itself.”

Photos: LitCam / Witters

“Löwenstark – Fußball trifft Kultur”: LitCam adds 16 new project locations to its funding program in Hesse

Frankfurt am Main, March 01, 2023: Kicking and learning, dribbling and strengthening social skills in the process – 16 schools in northern and central Hesse have also been enjoying this offer since the start of the second half of the 2022/2023 school year.
With these additional project groups, LitCam is further expanding its “Löwenstark – Fußball trifft Kultur” project, which was launched in 2021 and already supports 30 schools in the Rhine-Main region.
The project, which is funded by the Hessian Ministry of Education as part of the “Löwenstark – Der BildungsKICK” initiative, can now reach up to 1,000 children.

At “Löwenstark – Fußball trifft Kultur”, pupils in grades three to six receive one half of soccer training and one half of skills training twice a week, in which language and social skills in particular are taught.
In addition, cultural activities are offered to give the children new cultural insights and create a link between soccer, language and culture.
The big common goal of the participants is the “Löwenstark – Fußball trifft Kultur” final tournament, in which all participating schools compete for the coveted trophies.
The aim of this approach is to strengthen team spirit, fair play and cooperation, while at the same time motivating the participants to take part in the additional language training, in which soccer serves as a language opportunity.

The concept of “Löwenstark – Fußball trifft Kultur” is based on the approach of the nationwide integrative educational program “Fußball trifft Kultur”, which LitCam has been running since 2007.
Together with partner clubs from the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2, local sponsors and, since 2012, the DFL Foundation as a nationwide partner, this project is now offered at 35 project locations in 23 German cities.
The Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 clubs act as cooperation partners in the respective cities and provide the coaches for the “Fußball trifft Kultur” soccer training sessions.
This concept is slightly modified as part of “Löwenstark – Fußball trifft Kultur”.
The soccer training is carried out by sports students and licensed soccer coaches from popular sports clubs.

Karin Plötz, Director of LitCam gGmbH, welcomes the expansion of the funding in Hesse: “We are delighted to be able to further expand “Löwenstark – Fußball trifft Kultur” with our locations in northern and central Hesse.
In the course of the project so far, we have seen that we can motivate the participating children with our offer and get them moving.
Löwenstark – Fußball trifft Kultur” not only offers the children academic and sporting support, but also creates additional language opportunities, a sense of achievement and motivation to learn through the special combination of soccer, language and culture.”

Further information on the “Löwenstark – Fußball trifft Kultur” project can be found here.

“Löwenstark – Fußball trifft Kultur”: 30 new program groups

With 30 new program groups, LitCam is further expanding its commitment within the integrative educational program “Fußball trifft Kultur”.
Funded by the “Löwenstark – Der BildungsKICK” initiative of the Hessian Ministry of Culture, “Löwenstark – Fußball trifft Kultur” will be offered at 30 Frankfurt schools in the 2021/2022 school year.

The first program groups will start today, Monday, 13.09.
The program is set to begin at all 30 participating schools by the autumn vacations.
“Löwenstark – Fußball trifft Kultur” is based on a concept that has been tried and tested in the nationwide “Fußball trifft Kultur” program.
Pupils in grades three to six receive one half of soccer training and one half of skills training twice a week, in which language and social skills in particular are taught.

The nationwide “Fußball trifft Kultur” program is offered together with local sponsors and, since 2012, with the DFL Foundation as a nationwide partner at 34 project locations in 22 German cities, including five locations in Frankfurt am Main so far.
The Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 clubs act as cooperation partners in the respective cities and provide the coaches for the “Fußball trifft Kultur” soccer training sessions.
For the 30 new program groups in Frankfurt, this concept will be slightly modified for “Löwenstark – Fußball trifft Kultur”.
The soccer training will be carried out by sports students and licensed soccer coaches.
This will enable around 700 more children to benefit from the program in the coming school year.

Karin Plötz, Director of LitCam gGmbH, welcomes the expansion of the support in the Frankfurt city area: “We are delighted to be able to provide access to additional educational opportunities for children in need of support with “Löwenstark – Fußball trifft Kultur”, who have faced particular challenges during the coronavirus pandemic.
“Löwenstark – Fußball trifft Kultur” not only offers the children support at school, but also creates additional language opportunities, a sense of achievement and motivation to learn through the special combination of soccer, language and culture.
We would like to thank the Hessian Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs for the opportunity to make our post to the “Löwenstark – Der BildungsKICK” support program.”

As part of the “Löwenstark – Der BildungsKICK” funding program, the Hessian state government is providing a total of 60 million euros for the program for 2021 from the state’s special funds to overcome the corona crisis. Minister of Education Prof. Dr. R. Alexander Lorz hopes that the funding program will help to counteract the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic: “Changes in school operations, cancelled classes, lack of exercise and lack of social contacts are huge challenges that we will tackle together with determination. In addition to tried-and-tested measures, we are also focusing on new and creative ideas to provide our pupils with the best possible support. With our “BildungsKICK” program, we want to strengthen skills, provide individual support, take advantage of opportunities and form partnerships.” As part of the program, the existing network with established and new extracurricular partners of the Hessian Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs as well as socially committed actors will be expanded in addition to direct measures for the classroom. These include foundations, sports and cultural organizations as well as volunteer projects.