Integration through sport
Integration through sport is a program of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB), which is committed to social integration in Germany - through sport and in the structures of organized sport. The program primarily relates to the integration of people with a migration background .
The Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) and the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) support the program as donors and partners.
history
The beginnings of the “Integration through Sport” program can be dated back to the summer of 1989, when the program was first implemented in the four federal states of Lower Saxony, Berlin, North Rhine-Westphalia and Hesse, at that time under the project name “Sport for everyone - sport with resettlers” ". In the following year, 1990, the program was expanded to all of the old and in 1991 to the new federal states. In order to do justice to the current immigration situation, the program was expanded to include the target group of migrants in 2001, and the “Integration through Sport” program arose from the “Sport for All - Sport with Resettlers” project. Funded by the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) and the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), the program is carried out by the state sports associations, while the German Olympic Sports Association (DOSB) is responsible for coordinating the program at the federal level.
In the period from 2007 to 2009, the “Integration through Sport” program was evaluated by the University of Potsdam . The evaluation results acknowledge the comprehensive coverage and breadth of content of the program and draw a positive balance of the sports-related integration work in the sports clubs and organizations. The consequences and the need for action also identified by the evaluation team were included in a strategy developed jointly by DOSB, BMI and BAMF for the further development of the program. The program managers of the federal states were intensively involved in the further development process that the DOSB management academy accompanied.
structure
The “Integration through Sport” program is affiliated with the German Olympic Sports Confederation at the federal level. At the state level, it is implemented by the state and regional coordinators who support sports clubs, network partners and grass-roots volunteers in their on-site integration work in terms of concept, planning and organization. More than 750 sports clubs (so-called base clubs) are involved in the program.
The Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) and the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) support the program as donors and partners.
Federal coordination
The federal coordination in the German Olympic Sports Confederation takes on the control and overall coordination of the program. This ensures the uniform orientation of the 16 country programs, taking into account the country-specific conditions and needs. The central tasks of the federal coordination include advising and accompanying the state coordination in the implementation of the program concept, the continuous further development of the program work on the basis of social and political developments as well as scientific findings, the documentation, networking and multiplication of experiences and findings from the program work, the transfer the federal funds to the state coordination, the acquisition of third-party funds for the expansion of the program work as well as the communication and representation of the program internally and externally.
Target groups
The “Integration through Sport” program is primarily aimed at people with a migration background, with a focus of future work on groups that have so far been underrepresented in sport, such as girls and women, middle-aged and elderly people and the socially disadvantaged.
aims
The aim of the program is to strengthen the equal participation of people with a migration background in social life and thus also in the structures of participation and participation in the world of sport. The respect and preservation of cultural diversity while at the same time demanding everyone to orientate themselves towards constitutional and democratic basic positions are of central importance. One focus of the work is on groups that have so far been underrepresented in sport, such as girls and women, middle-aged people, the elderly and the socially disadvantaged.
On the basis of the understanding of integration, there is a common core of integration goals for the program “Integration through Sport”, on which the work in the program is oriented across all federal states. The first step is to inform the target groups about the system of organized sport in Germany, to introduce them to sport or to further develop their existing sporting interests and skills. For this purpose, sports opportunities must be created and sports offers developed that are based on the motives of the target groups for doing sports and take their specific needs into account. You have to meet the target groups socially, culturally, linguistically and spatially where they are. By actively addressing, target group-specific offers and reducing the access barriers, the target groups are to be encouraged to actively participate, membership and work, especially in the creative structures of organized sport, whereby particular attention should be paid to groups that have not been so often in organized sport so far are represented. So-called bridge builders can facilitate access here both linguistically and culturally.
activities
In addition to a solid program structure, the implementation of the content of the program requires a wide range of activities and measures. Several factors play a central role in the implementation of the program objectives. The following measures are used for this.
Qualification
The implementation of the program work requires a high level of skills in order to meet the requirements in the various functions and areas of responsibility. Both the full-time and the voluntarily committed employees of the program are trained through qualification measures and qualified for the special requirements of the program.
Advisory function
With the focus on local "empowerment", the program initiates and develops network-oriented overall concepts together with the sports clubs and network partners on site, tailored to local needs. Due to its many years of experience in integration work, the program can provide impetus for new approaches and advise and support the program partners, who are often organized on a purely voluntary basis, in the planning of the content and the organizational implementation of integration concepts.
Communication work
Uniform and networked communication of the program internally and externally (internal / external) sensitizes the public to intercultural issues and the integration potential of sport, sustainably promotes awareness of the program and increases the image, trust and awareness. This helps to attract new participants and volunteers and, last but not least, to acquire public funds and sponsors for the program as well as for individual regional concepts and measures. To this end, the program maintains continuous press work, creates information materials, initiates and carries out events with high public profile (e.g. integration day, information events, etc.), provides information on the Internet or provides information on current developments in the Program.
Networking
By pooling resources and competencies of all organizations and partners involved in the integration work, the integration potential of sport can be better used and an effective implementation of the stated goals can be guaranteed. The cooperation takes place on two levels: On the strategic level, for example, it is about the development of social space-oriented, needs-based integration concepts. To this end, the program and the program partners participate in political and technical committees, working groups or “round tables” both within and outside the structures of sport. At the operational level, the program uses the opportunities and potential of networking in order to provide joint sports and exercise, as well as non-sports activities with the respective cooperation partners (e.g. schools, clubs, language course providers), to initiate projects and to carry out joint public relations work .
Sports and exercise offers
The core element of the program's integration work at the grassroots level is the establishment and implementation of sports and exercise programs for the target groups. Target groups should be addressed via targeted approach, increasingly through so-called bridge builders from the respective target groups, target group-specific offers (e.g. women's sports groups, import sports such as Gorodki or Sambo) and low-threshold access (e.g. open sports courses, mobile sports projects, reduced participation fees) first be introduced to the exercise and sports activities. This creates meeting platforms on which people, regardless of origin, age and gender, can come together through sport.
The offer also includes bike courses for migrant women. These not only serve sporting and social purposes, but also enable those women from countries of origin where cycling is considered improper for women and does not correspond to the traditional image of women to have mobility in everyday life.
Extra sports offers and support services
For the integration of the target groups into society, it is necessary to provide more extensive offers that go beyond the normal sporting offer. The program offers a wide range of options for this, as regular training operations are expanded to include social activities (e.g. joint excursions, events), supplemented by support services (e.g. help with forms, job search) or various learning and educational opportunities (e.g. B. homework supervision, application training) is coupled. In addition, the participants in the program should acquire experience, competencies and orientations that they can bring to bear in other areas of life and contexts outside of sport in a useful and meaningful way.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Baur, Jürgen (Ed.): Evaluation of the program "Integration through Sport". 2009, accessed February 13, 2018 .
- ↑ Federal Government: 11th Report by the Federal Government Commissioner for Migration, Refugees and Integration . 2016, p. 314 .
- ↑ Radwelten: Best Practice Bicycle and Integration II. (No longer available online.) Working group bicycle-friendly municipalities in Bavaria eV, March 21, 2016, archived from the original on May 20, 2016 ; accessed on May 20, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Elisa Harlan: How migrant women overcome their shame while cycling. Süddeutsche Zeitung, December 18, 2015, accessed on May 20, 2016 .
