‘She Got Game!’ is a follow-up of the previous Erasmus+ project: Changing the Game by Changing its Players. The previous project showed that the number one issue many European youth work and community sport organisations struggle with, is the participation of girls. ‘We find very few girls participating in our activities’, said community sport coaches from e.g. Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and Antwerp. ‘Our managers want us to attain an equal percentage of boys and girls participating’, but the current reality is still far removed from that. The objective of the ‘She Got Game!’ programme is to get community sport organisations and community sport coaches to think and act differently on how to design, implement and evaluate interventions for teenage girls in order to increase Girls Engagement. The project ‘She Got Game!’ stops developing more of what men think, and starts engaging girls by testing and co-creating girls-centered programmes. The project is about engaging girls to overcome the gendered power relations that exist in wider society. It is about listening to the issues they face and acting on those issues. The innovative aim of the project is to change the way of thinking of community sport organisations and make the step from ‘solving’ the perceived problem - the lack of participation of girls in sport - to solving the actual problem - the lack of Girls Voice and Engagement in the field of sport. Herein, ‘She Got Game!’ sees girls as assets to be learned from, rather than believing the current stigma of girls being problems to society. This includes taking into consideration the voice of the girls, both active and non-active in the current programmes, but also changing the way in which programmes are organised for the inclusion of girls. Changing this perception and approach in an effective way demands the constitution of a strong, diverse and credible partnership. In order to achieve this, the consortium consists of a cross-sectional and cross-national cooperation between government, NGOs and academic institutions, and will include girls and coaches throughout the process. This is needed as these organisations all are heavily involved in Girls Engagement and have similar ambitions within the field, however each organisation does this for different final goals and approaches. This variation between the organisations makes the exchange and learning within the project ‘She Got Game!’ extra relevant. By combining ISA, GAME, StreetGames, the University of Bedfordshire and Stad Antwerpen, a complete, multi-faceted approach is possible where each organisation’s strong capacities will be of great use and will also stimulate innovation. The ability to fulfill this process is innovative for the organisations and gives the consortium an unique position as a partnership, as it includes the whole chain of different actors that can bring sustainable change from research to the field. A variety of activities - e.g. transnational project meetings (TPMs), a validation training, the development of intellectual outputs and multiplier events - will contribute to the overall aim of the project. In total, four intellectual outputs will be developed in the scope of the programme. The tangible deliverables of the project are as followed: 1. Girls Engagement in Sport - A guidebook for community sport organisations; 2. Girls Engagement in Sport - A method for community sport coaches; 3. Girls Engagement in Sport - Video stories from the field; 4. Girls Engagement in Sport - An online platform The programme will equip community sport coaches and girls themselves to engage in programme/project design and implementation, and developing their skillsets for participation at the same time. The programme will use the TPMs to discuss the development of the intellectual outputs, also in collaboration with the coaches and girls. The research for these outputs will include research as well as stories from the field, both from organisations and experiences of girls. Furthermore, during the project one training will be organised to increase the involvement community sport coaches and local staff. This will draw from the learnings during the development of the Guidebook and Method in order to validate these outputs. The 25 participating local community sport coaches will additionally develop skills on promoting Girls Engagement. These coaches will also engage in an implementation period through which they apply the lessons learned during the training. Overall, the consortium aims to reach 500 young girls through 'She Got Game!' and learn them about the importance of their voice in achieving Girls Engagement. Through national multiplier events, the consortium aims to inform key local stakeholders of the results of the programme and on how best to approach Girls Engagement through Sport. The international multiplier event will serve as a platform to advocate for 'She Got Game!' and its results, and the importance of Girls Engagement.
The project ‘She Got Game’ is all about listening to the issues that the girls face and acting on those issues. The main aim of the project was to change the way of thinking of community sports organisations and coaches and make them understand the real issue in the low participation of girls in sports activities, namely the lack of girls' voices and engagement in the field of sports. This includes changing the way in which community sports programmes and activities are organised for the inclusion of girls. To accomplish the change of this perception and approach in an effective way, various intellectual outputs were designed: 1) A organisational guidebook for community sports organisations 2) A method guidebook for community sports coaches 3) Video stories from the field 4) An online platform With these intellectual outputs the project group aimed to broaden the overall understanding of how to include girls into sports activities, both on an organisational level, as well as feeling included into community sports activities. On top of this a 3-day train the trainer. The goal of the train the trainer was to learn the community sports coaches how they can use co-creation to better engage girls within sport.
Although the world of sports strives to become more inclusive, gender still creates barriers which deter girls from entering and staying in sports and active communities. Despite numerous initiatives from organisations and institutions throughout Europe, the hard fact remains that organisations have failed to make a significant impact on girls to engage them in community sports activities and therefore failed to incorporate healthy levels of sports and physical activity within their lifestyle. The need arose to get community sports organisations and community sports coaches to think and act differently on how to design, organise and evaluate sport activities for teenage girls in order to increase their engagement. The lack of girl voices and engagement in the fields of sports is problematic and must be changed. The affiliated partners in this project team are all heavily involved in girls' engagement and all have similar or the same ambitions within the field. Each partner organisation is active on a different level of engaging girls into sport and physical activities and saw with this proposal an opportunity to do something about the existing barriers that discourage girls from participating in community sports activities.