QLS4G - Quality Label for Sport for Good

The potential of sport and play to benefit society and to create positive outcomes on individual and social domains is widely acknowledged. Therefore, Sport for Good (S4G) has become an established instrument to achieve non-sport-related societal and policy objectives, as stipulated by the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Yet, as the number of funding programmes, projects, approaches, and implementation organisations has increased, S4G did not only grow in size, but it became more complex, less comprehensible, and unequal in quality. Against this background, we see a need and opportunity for an aligned quality development of the S4G sector that specifically benefits European sports organisations at grassroots level. This would lead to higher standards of good governance in the S4G sector, better standards in safeguarding vulnerable people targeted by S4G, increased credibility and ‘market’ transparency for stakeholders involved in S4G, and improved effectiveness of grassroots sport organisations involved in S4G. For it, we develop a S4G Quality Label that includes a toolbox with quality development and educational resources which follow context-driven quality criteria and benchmarks aligned with the UN SDG and EU policies. Our easy-to-use certification and blockchain-based accreditation process through an interactive online platform allows (a) to certify that an organisation provides the necessary conditions to offer quality S4G initiatives and (b) provides an opportunity to promote the relevance of sport and play towards implementing the SDG. Our experienced consortium of 6 partners from 6 countries plus one associated European partner has the necessary expertise and experience to develop our approach. They have the possibilities to co-create and pilot a Quality Label together with the variety of S4G stakeholders, and to further develop and anchor the Quality Label sustainably in the S4G sector.