Egmont Fonden & Specialsport.dk
sports internships for CHILDREN in special education
Watch the movie here and find out what everyone thinks about the sports internship initiative
Initiatives
As a seed project under the Egmont Foundation, we had the opportunity to test and develop a methodological approach for two years (2022-2024) on how we as a society help children with special needs and disabilities get involved in sports and club life – so everyone has access to lifelong community and health.
358 students had the opportunity to participate in a sports internship and 78% have become active members of the club afterwards.
What we do
- Clarify the baseline on the activity rate of students in special schools – then we all know what the starting point is.
- works with schools to introduce families to the opportunity to become active in a club.
- working with handheld solutions to the challenges families face – matching the child to the ‘right’ activity, creating safety around the child in the club, finding solutions for transportation and much more.
- Create more activities together with local clubs and the municipal culture and leisure administration.
The method
It’s about ‘making it easy’ to join. And it’s about seeing sport and club life as a real opportunity. On your own behalf if you are a child, but especially to make parents confident that there are clubs that can set up exactly the framework for the sport that their child needs.
We work closely with schools to inspire students and parents to let students participate in a 4-week ‘sports internship’ in the community. This can be through AULA, films, educational material or through the associations’ presence in schools.
Specialsport.dk talks to all interested parents and goes through the different options for club life, based on the exact conditions of the individual family and child. We then help with what’s difficult during the sports internship – both around the family, the child and the clubs.
The four weeks are spent testing the sport and creating lasting solutions to the challenges.
No matter how we reach out to parents, the goal is always the same: to invite their child to a 4-week sports internship.
Theory
We have developed a model for how to help different groups of special children. Check out our description below.
Watch Silas choose sports at the 4-week sports internship
Results
School course
We collaborate with 38 different schools to offer their students sports internships.
Individual course
All children with disabilities can be enrolled in an individual sports internship program.
Nationwide scaling
By 2030, 3,000 students have to say YES THANK YOU to sports internships 🙂
From July 1, 2022 until now
Percentage of students active in clubs after an individual sports internship
Sometimes we create programs for the entire special school - see our examples below
Examples of school courses
"I love jumping into the deep end and making waves... where no one helps me."
"We had never seen it as a possibility that Frederikke could play sports.
The sports internship completely changed our mindset and opened our eyes to how much joy and pride it gives Frederikke to be part of the karate club."
"The best thing about handball is the team spirit, with me and the others - and when we grill and eat cake at the coach's house."
Join Frederikke for karate training at Glostrup Karate Club
Anchoring
The effort is not just for fun. We are serious about the fact that it’s time to stop thinking of children and young people with special needs and disabilities as someone who naturally doesn’t participate in sports and clubs.
That’s why we’ve worked with schools to develop a self-evaluation model so that sports practice and the transition to club life becomes part of the school’s annual cycle and learning efforts as students enter the middle school years, when these efforts are most effective.
And not only that – we also have a mission to include leisure and club life in special education legislation, which is currently completely absent. So yes – there’s a long way to go before we reach the finish line.
Schools
We love it when municipalities buy into the effort and collaboration together because
- the leisure department knows their club life
- The school district has in-depth knowledge of the children
- The family department has ongoing contact with the families
- Healthcare and disability both work with the lifelong perspective
But it is through the schools and the many local practice-based networks and professionals that we must find good local solutions to the challenges that arise in that part of Denmark. We’ve gathered some of our school partners below.
Click and check out the detailed evaluations on our selected school partners and our overall experience 🙂
Partners
And luckily, we’re not the only organization. There are a number of actors working to get more children and young people with special needs and disabilities active through sport. We want the same thing, but we do it in different ways – and it works locally and for the child, family, club or school where the intervention is applied. But we lack the overall national plan for ‘who does what’.
Of course, sports internships are not the answer to everything. That’s why we’ve invited many of the major players in the field into the engine room at Specialsport.dk so that together we can find out what the best possible effort is and perhaps also who would be the best to take on the various tasks?
And of course, we do this together with a number of selected partners in the municipalities, because that’s where it all happens.
The most fun is jumping into the foam pit with Sofia
Kasper, gymnast at Hvidovre Gymnastik
