New Opps - New Opportunities for Drop-out Young Athletes to Continue in Sports

Project New Opps - New Opportunities for Drop-out Young Athletes to Continue in Sports aims at tackling the current phenomenon of finishing sport participation in ages between 15-20. The proposal addresses the sport-related EU priority Encouraging the participation in sport and physical activity. Secondarily, it addresses the themes of the horizontal priorities of Digital Transformation and Inclusion and Diversity. The project will first study the reasons for why so many teenagers stop their training/competition in personal disciplines of sport. We will try to find new approaches, practices and opportunities to these drop-outs so that they can still stay active in sport in other roles than training/competition. To implement our project, both partners (Finland, Poland) will do the ground work and the base study, gathering information from 100 to 200 athlete dropouts using an innovative digital query tool called ZEF. A phone application called MyClub, designed for internal communication within sport clubs, will also be introduced to enhance effective communication. The project activities will include international online workshops bimonthly (total 5), a study visit of one week to Poland and final workshops with a seminar in Oulu, Finland (one week). We expect to find solutions to tackle the problem of dropping out at a young age. We will look into the possibilities of offering volunteering, coaching, projects and other options for youngsters to stay involved. Through our transnational activities and our best findings, the information we gather and produce will be shared for a wider audience to benefit sport organisations on a local, regional, national and even international level.