Aware of this, Impulso Inicial created, in alliance with the Arturo Vidal Foundation, the free soccer school program Reyes de Barrio (RDB).
In 2018, the program began with a pilot in three communes and by the end of 2019 it already had a presence in 12 communes in the Metropolitan Region, with a total of 13 schools and more than a thousand students.
The goal for 2020 was to double the number of participants and increase the number of schools, even reaching regions. The effects of the Covid 19 pandemic forced the suspension of work on the courts after the first week of training, but the program reinvented itself to continue providing weekly classes to students, also taking advantage of the opportunity to reach even more children throughout the country.
On average the classes last eight minutes and are divided into three phases: warm-up, sets of exercises and stretching. The workouts are posted on Tuesdays and Thursdays on Reyes de Barrio’s digital platforms and are stored on the program’s official YouTube channel.
There are already more than 20 online classes available for anyone who wants to train at home, regardless of whether they are students of the schools or not.
In order to maintain the spirit of the program, different measures have been taken in addition to the online classes: the teachers are following up the classes through Zoom with the students, news and stories related to sports and healthy living are shared on Reyes de Barrio’s social networks, and stories from the RDB community, such as interviews with teachers and students, are being uploaded on the website.
This is how Reyes de Barrio has been facing the pandemic, maintaining contact with students and their families and offering public content to reach the homes of all Chileans who see soccer as an opportunity for physical activity and to instill positive values.