“Clubs, that’s something that only exists in Germany,” say the two volunteer sports coaches Silvia Dibalova and Simon Elhadj. Both migrated to Germany and know it differently from their native countries of the Czech Republic and Algeria, more commercially.
“Unite lives of volunteers like you. They help ensure that new members enrich and promote diversity and performance,” reports Michael Stanke, 1st City Councilor of the City of Limburg. “Without club life in Germany, competitive sport and socialization would hardly be possible,” Stanke continued.
The sports coaches should help to ensure that people with social disadvantages, refugees and migrants are integrated into the club landscape. The four committed athletes are part of the state support program “Sport integrates Hessen”. The content of the program of the state of Hesse is, among other things, the provision of funds for cities like Limburg to enable integration and social participation in the club landscape. They received certificates for their commitment from the Hessian Minister of the Interior, Peter Beuth, which Stanke presented to the sports coaches.
The four reasons for doing voluntary work are varied.
“Club sport is particularly suitable for low-threshold participation,” explains Walter Bäumer, who has been a sports coach for the city of Limburg since 2016 and has brought many children and young people with a migration background to sport in this way. That’s because club sports like football often don’t require expensive equipment, and so everyone has had points of contact at some point in their life, Holz continues. His world has always been athletics, which led him to national and international competitions as a youth. Eventually he got his B license in football and since then he has coached a number of junior and senior teams.
The fact that sport contributes to the prevention of violence was not only discovered during his work as head of the coordination center for violence prevention at the Hessian Ministry of Education. Physical exertion reduces stress and aggression.
Silvia Dibalova, who only came to the sport when the family moved to Limburg and one of her sons chose to practice judo, now leads the training for the children’s groups at the Judo Club Limburg 1952. She herself has successfully completed some additional training for the club completed and works as a youth worker on the board. According to Dibalova, she really arrived in Germany through sport and her voluntary work. Her talent for languages, she speaks four languages (German, English, Slovak and Czech), makes her integration work easier, she says. Whereby: “Sport speaks its own language”.
The fact that Simon Elhadj simply enjoys dealing with people is not only shown by his job as a kindergarten teacher. For him, sport opened the door to a second family, the Elz judo club. He himself has a migration background and can put himself in the shoes of children and young people from other countries, but also from difficult social backgrounds.
“I’m not just a sports coach, I’m the contact person for the children and young people in all matters and situations,” says Elhadj. With his network to other associations and institutions, he primarily wants to break down barriers and build bridges.
Sports coach Victoria Demleitner cannot imagine life without sports. She has practiced ballet and dance sport since she was a child. She is now active in the fitness area, where she is particularly fond of endurance sports such as jumping fitness, Zumba or jogging, because, as she says: “I can really work out and clear my head.” That’s exactly what she wants as a sport -Coach and give access to a sport to as many people as possible. The type of sport that is practiced is irrelevant, what is important is the fun, the good feeling and simply being able to let off steam or forget problems.
All coaches share a love of sport and the idea of making it accessible to as many people as possible, especially those on the fringes of society.
Together with Lukas Hohly, who is responsible for youth work in the city of Limburg and oversees the program, the sports coaches work on sports formats such as midnight sports and the football field tournament in the southern part of the city. “Even at these events we can bring together many young people from different nations and cultures and do sports as a team,” says Hohly, pleased about the high level of participation in the city’s offers.
The sports coaches work on a voluntary basis and receive an expense allowance for their work. They took part in a full-day training session with the Hessian Sports Youth and will attend regular regional meetings to exchange ideas and network with sports coaches from other communities.
In addition to funding sports coaches, municipalities can also use state funding to support clubs that are already doing integrative work or have members with a migration background.
Further information on the funding program “Sport integrates Hessen” can be found here:
(Source City of Limburg)
2023-07-05 07:21:47
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