Gymnastik- och idrottshögskolan, GIH

Aim

The Swedish government has allocated a milliard Swedish Crowns on the project ”Ett handslag med idrotten”, (A handshake with sports), to make it possible for more children to participate in sports. The project goes on for four years and my work is an evaluation of the projects that have received fundings from Gästriklans Idrottsförbund for the second year. One aim is to see how many pupils that have been involved with the projects and especially the numbers of pupils earlier not active in a sport club and the number of girls. It is interesting to see what’s in common in the sport clubs that have had a large number from those two groups. Another purpose is to see what consequences the project has had for the sport clubs that have been involved.

Methods

A questionnaire that was sent to 21 sport clubs that had received fundings the first year was used as a prestudy. All the sport clubs answered and and the answers was used to improve the questions for year two. The new questionnaire was sent to the 40 sport clubs that had received funding the second year and 39 sport clubs have answered.

Results and discussion

3695 pupils have participated in the activities organized by the clubs that have recived fundings. 1221 of them were girls and 863 were not earlier active in a sport club. The sport clubs that have engaged most pupils are those who are able to have large groups like team sports and gymnastics. They also seem to be most effective from an economic point of wiew. They have however not engaged a majority of girls or a majority of children not earlier active in sport clubs. The sport clubs that has succeeded best with this are clubs for individual sports and those who have let the pupils try different activities, often the sport club of the school. A number of them have had activities intended only for girls or earlier not active pupils. The results must be carefully interpreted since the basis in small and 6 sport clubs have not answered the question about how many earlier not active in a sport club that have participated in their activities. Among them who have answered this question the mean cost for each child earlier not active in a sport club is 794 Swedish crowns. The main purpose that the money has been used for is material and cost for leaders. The big costs for the leaders result in dependence of new money to be able to continue the activities. At the same time many sport clubs shunt the pupils to their ordinary activities and start new groups for beginners. It is also a promising sign for the future that the knowledge about the sport clubs has grown in their surroundings. The conclusion is that there is two ways to get girls and pupils not earlier active in sport clubs more active. Either you try to get more pupils to start with sports or you can try to get the pupils that are already members in sport clubs to continue their training when they grow older. If you want to reach a majority of earlier not active in sport clubs and girls, especially among the older children a possible way according to this investigation, is to give priority to individual sports and clubs that let the pupils try different activities, preferable activities intended only for earlier not active pupils or/ and girls. If the aim is to get as many as possible to continue with their sports when they grow older you should prioritize clubs with many members, and by giving them better opportunities to exercise during daytime, in conjunction with or during the school day facilitate to continue their exercising. A reflection is that maybe the team sports must create new activities to meet the needs of the older pupils that want to exercise just for fun.

Aim

The Swedish government has allocated a milliard Swedish Crowns on the project ”Ett handslag med idrotten”, (A handshake with sports), to make it possible for more children to participate in sports. The project goes on for four years and my work is an evaluation of the projects that have received fundings from Gästriklans Idrottsförbund for the second year. One aim is to see how many pupils that have been involved with the projects and especially the numbers of pupils earlier not active in a sport club and the number of girls. It is interesting to see what’s in common in the sport clubs that have had a large number from those two groups. Another purpose is to see what consequences the project has had for the sport clubs that have been involved.

Methods

A questionnaire that was sent to 21 sport clubs that had received fundings the first year was used as a prestudy. All the sport clubs answered and and the answers was used to improve the questions for year two. The new questionnaire was sent to the 40 sport clubs that had received funding the second year and 39 sport clubs have answered.

Results and discussion

3695 pupils have participated in the activities organized by the clubs that have recived fundings. 1221 of them were girls and 863 were not earlier active in a sport club. The sport clubs that have engaged most pupils are those who are able to have large groups like team sports and gymnastics. They also seem to be most effective from an economic point of wiew. They have however not engaged a majority of girls or a majority of children not earlier active in sport clubs. The sport clubs that has succeeded best with this are clubs for individual sports and those who have let the pupils try different activities, often the sport club of the school. A number of them have had activities intended only for girls or earlier not active pupils. The results must be carefully interpreted since the basis in small and 6 sport clubs have not answered the question about how many earlier not active in a sport club that have participated in their activities. Among them who have answered this question the mean cost for each child earlier not active in a sport club is 794 Swedish crowns. The main purpose that the money has been used for is material and cost for leaders. The big costs for the leaders result in dependence of new money to be able to continue the activities. At the same time many sport clubs shunt the pupils to their ordinary activities and start new groups for beginners. It is also a promising sign for the future that the knowledge about the sport clubs has grown in their surroundings. The conclusion is that there is two ways to get girls and pupils not earlier active in sport clubs more active. Either you try to get more pupils to start with sports or you can try to get the pupils that are already members in sport clubs to continue their training when they grow older. If you want to reach a majority of earlier not active in sport clubs and girls, especially among the older children a possible way according to this investigation, is to give priority to individual sports and clubs that let the pupils try different activities, preferable activities intended only for earlier not active pupils or/ and girls. If the aim is to get as many as possible to continue with their sports when they grow older you should prioritize clubs with many members, and by giving them better opportunities to exercise during daytime, in conjunction with or during the school day facilitate to continue their exercising. A reflection is that maybe the team sports must create new activities to meet the needs of the older pupils that want to exercise just for fun.