“Dad and I haven’t had fun
together for 2 years”
– Boy, 8 years old
Our Goals
Game with Mum & Dad is the initiative of an NGO called Children of Prisoners Europe (COPE). The concept and the model has been pioneered and developed with great success by COPE’s Italian member, BambiniSenzaSbarre.
COPE realised that many of its members, affiliates and partners had been organising similar events on a smaller, local scale. Thus came the idea of connecting these local and national initiatives on a European scale.
Each local event culminates with a game of football inside a prison, involving both parents and their children.
This requires a lot of preparation with children, parents inside and outside of prisons, prison staff, and local and national authorities – it’s a year-long preparation!
If playing a game of football isn’t possible for practical reasons, other sports or games can be used.
During and after the game, we make sure to collect children’s experiences of the event.
