EXAMPLES OF INCLUSIVE SPORTS AND PHYSICAL ACTIVITY IN THE NETHERLANDS Life Goals: sport as a participation instrument The Life Goals foundation stimulates vulnerable people to participate through sport. We focus on OldStars With the OldStars programme, the Dutch National Elderly Foundation strives for seniorfriendly sports environments by starting sports clubs and introducing adjusted sports activities such as walking football, basketball, hockey, handball, rugby, tennis, and table tennis. OldStars allows elderly people to participate, meet new people, do adjusted exercises, and become active at a sports club as a trainer, group leader, or volunteer. Fun, the social aspect, and autonomy can be tackled and brought back to the life of elderly people through participation in sport. OldStars’ philosophy is founded on the following three pillars: • Physical fitness: health risks are reduced by enabling seniors to participate with an adjusted fitness level. Any OldStars training has a format that is supported by the Athletic Skills Movement strategy that chooses several movement forms, instead of the form that fits the sport. OldStars also organises special days for trainers. • Social fitness: the programme lowers the threshold by free demonstration days for the elderly. Trainers can see the social part as part of the training. Also, the elderly can become OldStars trainers themselves. • Strategic fitness: OldStars is a national movement that serves as a catalyst. We stimulate local cooperation and use the network of sports associations to reach more sports clubs. We also support the organisation of national events to facilitate the movement towards senior friendly sports clubs. Contact www.oldstars.nl people who are stuck in life for whatever reason: homeless people, people who suffer from addiction, refugees, teenage mothers, former prisoners, or people who suffer from mental health issues. They all share the desire to get a better grip on their lives. The foundation uses sport as a means to make people move again. Participating in sport within the regular infrastructure is hard for these groups. Therefore, we developed the necessary tools to engage local municipalities, clubs, and healthcare institutions in facilitating sport activities for these groups. We believe in local ownership by educating local organisations and professionals to adequately apply our methods. We have educated more than 200 professionals to become a Social Sports Coach. They are the motor of our programmes and they apply methods that focus on the personal development of participants and help them tackle challenges such as homelessness, addiction, illiteracy, and criminal behaviour among youth. In recent years, our coaches have directly contributed to the development of over 5,000 people. Contact www.stichtinglifegoals.nl 26
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