Sport vernetzt (”Sport connects”) is a project run by the Berlin basketball club ALBA Berlin. Back in the 2016, they had established the project “ALBA goes to school” which was later continued and expanded to Sport vernetzt. They started in one particular neighbourhood, Gropiusstadt, and the project since has spread across Berlin and even nationwide involving new partners, new schools and new sport clubs in cities all over Germany.

ALBA creates partnerships with schools and nursery schools in neighbourhoods that face socio-economic disadvantages. In these institutions, coaches instruct exercise classes that aim at sparking a lifelong joy of movement and sports. Coaches are trained beforehand to expand their skillset in order to meet the needs that kids from challenging backgrounds (might) have. Therefore, the focus lays on both the children’s social-emotional and physical development. The project is rooted in a strong notion of sport as a catalyst for educational, personal and health development.

Facing a lack of personel, schools have realized the benefits they gain from the cooperation. In some cases, Sport vernetzt has taken on the role of a substitute for the – otherwise cancelled – physical education classes.

Since the neighbourhoods of interest have such a high demand for these curricular and also extra-curricular classes, ALBA has involved other sports clubs in order to reach as many children as possible. Besides the cooperation with other sport clubs, ALBA has created strong networks in each of the neighbourhoods they are active in: From educational institutions to town quarter management, from youth centers to the local administration as well as local businesses. Recognizing the importance of these networks and their coherent coordination ALBA invests a lot of resources in them. In doing so, they focus on both creating new networks as well as involving themselves into existing ones.

This way, they ensure to be present and to be seen by potential partner institutions as well as by their target group. They have established neighbourhood coordinators who function as a contact person for the coaches and for all partners in the respective neighbourhood. The neighbourhood coordinators themselves have regular meetings which strengthen the network across the city and widen perspective. This allows for comparison and taking different aspects and needs of different neighbourhoods into consideration.

The project not only enhances sport opportunities for children, but creates an impact on the whole neighbourhood. Meanwhile, the sport clubs involved also undergo a development and learning process, enabling them to better understand the struggles and needs of children living in less privileged conditions. This may result in new regular memberships along the way, but more so, offers clubs the opportunity to redefine their goals and way of approach, so they can contribute to a more just society.