Another one of our collective endeavours has come out with flying colours. The results are in. Last year, we collaborated with our partner-grantee Y-Ultimate to support Dare to Fly 2025: Creating Space for Girls to Lead Through Sport.
You can read the partnership details in our previous blog: https://foundationforrebuildingchildhood.org/2025/09/11/dare-to-fly-enabling-grounds-for-young-women-to-lead/
A Quick Recap of Y-Ultimate
Y-Ultimate is a non-profit that empowers children and youth from underserved communities by building life skills and livelihood pathways through sport. Its core sport, Ultimate Frisbee, is a self-refereed, non-contact team sport recognised by the International Olympic Committee. Often played in mixed-gender teams, it emphasises fairness, communication, and shared responsibility.
Over the next decade, Y-Ultimate aims to reach 100,000 young people across India using sport to promote education, leadership, and social mobility.
The Dare to Fly Initiative
Dare to Fly is Y-Ultimate’s gender-responsive initiative that creates safe and empowering sporting spaces for girls from underserved communities in Delhi NCR. While Ultimate Frisbee encourages mixed-gender play, the program provides dedicated spaces where girls can build confidence, leadership, and voice through sport.
In 2025, Dare to Fly brought girls together through three training camps and a two-day girls-only tournament. Beyond physical training, the program created a judgment-free space where participants built confidence, friendships, and life skills such as communication, teamwork, decision-making, and resilience through sport.
Program Reach
The initiative saw strong engagement across communities and schools.
Participation highlights:
- 159 participants attended the three training camps
- 58 girls attended all three camps
- 148 participants attended at least one day of the tournament
- 127 attended both tournament days
- 10 teams competed in the final tournament
Participants came from eight communities and three schools, along with external teams such as St. Stephen’s College (Delhi University) and teams travelling from Lucknow. The tournament created opportunities for girls to interact with peers beyond their neighbourhoods and expand their social networks.
What Changed: Voices from the Field
- The most powerful outcomes were reflected in the experiences of the participants themselves.
- Many girls spoke about improvements in their fitness, skills, and confidence. For some, simply stepping onto a field and playing regularly was a new experience.
- A recurring theme was the freedom girls felt in a girls-only environment. Participants shared that they were more comfortable taking risks, speaking up, and making decisions during play without fear of judgment.
- Despite teams being mixed across communities, strong bonds formed quickly. Girls described learning to communicate openly, support teammates, and build trust with players they had just met.
- Participants also reflected on lessons beyond the game. The culture of Ultimate Frisbee, grounded in fairness and respect, encouraged players to care for one another, resolve conflicts, and take responsibility both on and off the field.
- For several girls, the experience sparked new ambitions and confidence in their potential. Sport became not just an activity, but a pathway to leadership and personal growth.
Coaches as Leaders
Women coaches played a central role in shaping the program and strengthening its impact.
Coach and Tournament Director Kalpana Bisht described the experience as both challenging and rewarding. Coordinating camps, aligning coaches, and managing logistics required strong planning and teamwork. Yet witnessing the girls’ transformation made the effort worthwhile.
“Girls who arrived with hesitation on day one returned with newfound confidence and voice,” she reflected. “When young women are given a trusted space, they don’t just become athletes. They rise as leaders.”
Coach and Tournament Director Megha also highlighted the importance of thoughtful communication and planning when working with diverse age groups and communities. Watching participants move from hesitation to initiative while building friendships was especially meaningful for her, having once benefited from similar programs herself.
Learning and the Road Ahead
One key insight from Dare to Fly was clear: girls thrive when given dedicated spaces of their own. Participation increased, confidence grew faster, and deeper connections formed among players.
In response, Y-Ultimate plans to adapt its community program model. Alongside mixed-gender sessions, the organisation will continue creating dedicated spaces where girls can build confidence and leadership before stepping into broader mixed play environments.
Reflections on the Partnership
This collaboration aligns closely with FRC’s mission to promote alternative learning through play and build leadership among teenagers from underserved communities. Dare to Fly made it possible to pilot this girls-focused model at scale, conduct three training camps, host a large tournament, and invest in women coaches as visible leaders.
Beyond the immediate outcomes, the initiative strengthened Y-Ultimate’s internal coordination, planning systems, and leadership development. Women coaches stepped into roles as planners, facilitators, and decision-makers, deepening their confidence and ownership within the organisation.
Most importantly, the program reaffirmed a powerful idea: when young women are given space, trust, and opportunity, they do far more than participate. They lead, inspire and are geared to win.
To continue creating impact at the local level, we aim to partner with more grassroots organisations this year, expanding our network of collaborators working directly within communities. By supporting and learning from these organisations, we hope to reach more children and young people, strengthen locally rooted initiatives, and create greater opportunities for play, learning, and leadership.