Pierre Johannessen and Big Bang Ballers: Basketball used to Empower Youth

The '30 Home Games' mission is my way of connecting with people around the World, using our collective passion for the game of Basketball. Sharing the Court opens conversation and leads to further invitations. It eases the tension when a language barrier exists. Canberran Pierre Johannessen also sees the power of Basketball and has used it to empower kids from all over the World. earning him the distinction of 2010 ACT Young Australian of the Year.

Throwing a basketball at big problems “We use basketball to fight youth poverty and social disadvantage, and that’s a big way of saying we basically just play basketball with kids,” he explains, sitting in his office at Isaacs shops, where he and his mother run a small law firm... ”He traces the simple idea back to late 2007, when he was shooting hoops in Bangladesh with a couple of French expats and a local guy. He was in the country working with Habitat for Humanity through the Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development program. “You can do it with anything – you can do it with music, you can do it with arts – it just so happened that basketball was what we knew at the time,” he says.

It's incredible to see that the modest idea of "just playing basketball" coupled with visionary dedication can achieve so much. Hats off to Pierre for his work Empowering the Youth and his great ambassadorship of Basketball.

VIDEO: TEDxCanberra - Pierre Johannessen - 

International development, basketball and valuing youth

 Find more about Big Ballers and Pierre Johannessen below - Big Bang Ballers website - Pierre Johannessen's personal blog - Pierre Johannessen at TEDx Canberra