WhoZnext intends to get youngsters on the move
Context
Sports clubs, community centres and schools are doing everything they can to keep youngsters active in sport, but they often do not succeed. The national campaign 'whoZnext' is designed to get youngsters moving again by allowing them to organise their own activities.
Youngsters do not get enough exercise and are often insufficiently involved in the organisation of their own sport. This campaign is not only intended as a means to get youngsters more active in sport, but also to get them more active in the organisation of sports activities; the more influence youngsters have on the sports they do, the less likely they are to drop out.
The campaign
WhoZnext has launched a national campaign challenging youngsters to put their sporting ideas into practice. The NISB supports the initiatives of the teams with poster campaigns in discos and schools, flyer campaigns and an interactive website. The campaign opened with a cinema advert designed to encourage youngsters to be more active and regional events called 'whoZnext action games' are held. At these sporting events, the youngsters were responsible for the organisation and were helped by the campaign team.
The whoZnext teams
The real work is performed by the whoZnext teams, however. WhoZnext teams are groups of youngsters who organise all kinds of sporting and promotional activities, mostly on local level. To prepare them effectively, they are trained and given all kinds of brochures and instruments. Some 1,500, divided into 160 teams, are currently active. The assumption that youngsters are not interested in the organisation of their sport is far from true. Youngsters are often the first to say so. 'The nice thing about whoZnext is that you can do the things you really want to. If you want a skate board ramp, simply find a sponsor and build one. And if you want to organise a cage football tournament on a square in town, come up with a good plan, make all the arrangements and organise it yourself', says a 15-year-old boy (member of a whoZnext team).
A team receives activity money and is supervised by an adult, who may be a physical education teacher, a football trainer, a youth worker or a community sport worker. 'The important thing is that it is someone who is close to the youngsters and doesn't tell them what to do, but helps them put their ideas into practice', explains Van Groeningen (project manager).
Youngsters in sports clubs
The project called Girl Power has shown quite clearly that youngsters and adults can work well together. Seven girls from the Dutch town of Dwingeloo were totally fed up with the quiet summer months and decided to do something for the other youngsters their age in the municipality. They and a number of adult members of the local volleyball club set up a beach volleyball club. After a good year, the municipal council decided to build several volleyball fields, including one at the local swimming pool. The young organisers now have their own clubhouse, where they hold tournaments and training camps.
Best practice document
After three years of successful campaigning, there are a number of good examples of how a community, sports club or school has been working to achieve this goal. A 'best practice' document contains interviews with various whoZnext team coaches, providing readers with a good idea of the main results and lessons learned from the whoZnext project. Continue for Best practice document...
Active youth with a handicap
In cooperation with the Cruyff Foundation, established by Johan Cruyff, NISB wants to stimulate youth that are physical or mentally challenged to become active in whoZnext-teams. During the school year 2005-2006 8 Special schools have made a start with whoZnext. These whoZnext-teams have organised three activities and a whoZnext Action Game on each school. During next school year 10 more whoZnext-teams will be funded by the Cruyff Foundation.
More information?
e: heino.vangroeningen@nisb.nl
t : +31 318 490900