Testing the Guidelines
Within the PUSH project, we developed guidelines that can be used to start sports activities for Homeless people. In three cities in the Netherlands, these guidelines were tested the last couple of months. In Alphen aan den Rijn, Amsterdam and Purmerend there were several sports activities such as soccer, bootcamp, yoga, cycling and boxing.

To test the guidelines on effectiveness and usability, an online questionary was created. These questionaries were sent to the coaches, coordinators and participants of the activities in the three cities. In total, 14 people filled in the questionary.

The impact of the sports activities
According to the coaches, coordinators and participants of the sports activities, the activities had a positive impact on the lives of the participants.

A lot of players had social, rather than physical goals within the activities. A lot of the players joined because they want to have more fun, make more connections and work on their self- esteem.

“The activities are nice and useful. You make social connections and can clear your head.”

A lot of the coaches see positive improvement with their participants. They see that players communicate better, that they make more friends, have a better fysical health, get more self-confidence and get more structure in their life. They also say that the activities are a good place to just have fun in their life and to forget about problems for a while.