On Thursday October 12th a webinar organized by SLG was held for the European PUSH project. PUSH, which is an acronym for Promoting Unity Through Sports for Homeless, does exactly that what it stands for. The project aims to develop guidelines about the use of sport’s activities for people that are homeless, for them to meet new people and boost personal growth. Attendees of the webinar were people from Life Goals Nederland, which is a partner in the PUSH project, as well as participants and organizers of current Life Goals programs. Together they discussed how to best set up sports programs for people in these vulnerable positions.

Here you can find the registration of the webinar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Di1dZNU4cJE

What came out of the discussion as one of the most important things when organizing sport programs, is that the personal contact and commitment from a trainer to a player is key for success. The coach should be approachable and clear and should work in close contact with the health care supervisor or coach. This way, issues can hopefully quickly be resolved, and connections can be made more easily. There will be more trust and more fun throughout the process.
Another important finding from the webinar is that the creation of ownership within the sports program is beneficial for the success of the program. If you let participants organize events themselves, they can improve their self-confidence as well as enjoy it more, since they are doing something, they like. Gathering the knowledge of what participants like to do is always important, as that will cause them to join in on the trainings more often. This combined with providing a sense of safety, connection, little competitiveness and letting everyone join in where desired, will be positive factors for successful sport sessions.