Abstract
Football (soccer) organisations in the Pacific Islands frequently employ stories – text and images – of participants to underline highlights and individual activities, augment social media presence, and demonstrate provision of services. The programmes implemented across women’s football tend to be designed by men, with men and boys in mind, and privilege men and boys’ football communities over those of and for women and girls (McGowan et al., 2023). While measurement of participation in football related events, training, and programmes delivered by these organisations is commonplace, efficient and empirical, assessment of broader impact within or on football communities is relatively rare, particularly for those marginalised through ethnicity, gender, or sexual identity (Pratt et al., 2021).
Recent research in the evaluation of social impact – the net effect of an activity on a community and the well-being of individuals and families (Centre for Social Impact, n.d.) – in the creative arts has assisted in identifying community needs and underlines accomplishment through other measures, including shared narratives and storytelling practices (Gattenhof, 2017; Gattenhof et al., 2021; Hancox, 2019).
Where football (soccer) is an effective way to engage marginalised communities (Sherry, 2010) and place-based creative arts approaches to evaluation afford opportunities for community members to feedback in ways most comfortable for them (Badham 2019), the regional governing body, the Oceania Football Confederation, seek to create safe spaces for programme participants to realise more than football skills. This paper therefore considers and reflects on challenges in the application of transdisciplinary practices, including creative writing, in the evaluation of social impact of women’s football programmes in the Pacific Islands.