A small tennis club from Central Hesse shows: Inclusion is an added value for everyone – for people with and without disabilities. For this, TC Laubach will receive the Hessian Social Prize 2023.
By Mia von Hirsch
Video post
Video 02:11 min. | 11/13/23, 7:30 p.m. |hessenschau
“Tennis for all” – club awarded with Hessian social award
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Yellow balls fly over the nets, the squeak of sports shoes and wheelchair tires echoes through a sports hall near Gießen. It’s training time at the Laubach Tennis Club. Fifteen members of different age groups play against each other, including: Sven Klippert.
“Integrated from day one”
Regardless of whether it is tennis or basketball, it is generally difficult to find sports options for people with disabilities, says Klippert. He found out about the inclusive offer at the Laubach Tennis Club by chance. “I was integrated from day one, it was really fun and I enjoyed tennis,” enthuses the 37-year-old wheelchair user.
Instead of skepticism about inclusive sport, he was only met with warmth. The project triggered a real tennis hype in the region, he says. He himself continually promotes the club. Klippert has been playing tennis here for three years now.
Saving a club through inclusion
A few years ago, the Laubach tennis club was on the verge of collapse. “The club was completely outdated,” says Dirk Oßwald. The 53-year-old is responsible for the “Tennis for All” project at TC and works at Lebenshilfe Giessen. At that time there were only 60 members and few offers. “The club slowly withered away,” he remembers. The club wanted to change that – with a completely new approach.
The idea: invite people with disabilities to the tennis court. At first there were reservations because the small, rural club had neither previous experience with inclusive sport, nor specially trained trainers or even barrier-free facilities. “Is that even possible?” they asked themselves, says Oßwald. But the barriers in people’s minds and hearts quickly fell.
The “Tennis for All” campaign brought new people interested in sports to the club in 2019. According to the club, the aim of the initiator Niklas Höfken from the German Tennis Association was to create a low-threshold offer with the campaign – for everyone who was interested in tennis and wanted to get to know the sport in the club. With the support of people from Laubach and funding from Aktion Mensch, they organized trial days, designed the facility to be barrier-free and paid for a trainer for people with disabilities.
“This is what long-term participation looks like”
Since 2019, around a hundred people with disabilities have taken part in the action and trial days, according to the association. There are currently fifteen athletes with disabilities who are actively involved. The club now has a total of 260 members. Corona hasn’t put a damper on this either. The project led to a significant change in awareness among many. “The togetherness was there straight away, today we have a really great club life again,” says Oßwald happily.
On Monday, the inclusive project “Tennis for All” was awarded the Hessian Social Prize. This year the jury honored the club for its commitment with first place and prize money of 8,000 euros. With its inclusive offering, the association has broken down prejudices and actual barriers. Inclusion is lived here and prejudices are broken down through encounters. “This is what meaningful, long-term participation looks like,” praised the jury.
Further information
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2023-11-13 14:00:00
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