Ballerup Municipality and DGI are set to promote mental, social and physical health of children and young people through a targeted and broad effort in the field of leisure under the Icehearts Europe project. The new collaboration kicked off at an event held in April 2024.

By joining forces, Ballerup Municipality and DGI are aiming to focus on a number of wellbeing-promoting sport club activities for children and young people through the EU project Icehearts Europe. They invited sport clubs were to a kick-off event on 25 April 2024 at 5-8 pm at TAPETEN Association and Volunteer Center, where the collaboration was officially launched.

The Icehearts Europe pilot project in Ballerup will form a holistic collaboration in which various actors across the municipality and community have a share in sharpening focus on mental health promotion. This includes housing associations, educational institutions, sports associations and several departments in the municipality. Although there are already a number of parties involved in the overall effort, it is not a "closed community". Other actors who are interested in and want to contribute in the work of promoting mental, social and physical health for children and young people in the municipality were welcome to join the kick-off event or even contact the project managers throughout the project.

"At Ballerup Municipality, we want to work for more and better activities for our children and young people. We believe that participation in sports and communities is a way to gain mental health and wellbeing, and we believe that we can create more and better offers when we collaborate with other actors and work together," says Mayor Jesper Würtzen (A).

DGI’s role in the collaboration will be to support children and young people in their self-belief, and to work with and educate the sport clubs, to ensure equal access to good sports communities where there is a focus on both mental and physical health and fellowship through active sports participation.

In practice, it is about collaborating with local sports clubs in Ballerup, so that they generally become an attractive place for more of the municipality's children and young people to spend their leisure time. In addition, three specific projects* will give children and young people in socially vulnerable positions a free space and include them better in wellbeing-promoting sports communities in different ways.

The chairman of DGI Copenhagen, Peder Nedergaard, emphasises the importance of fellowship in sports when talking about wellbeing activities for children and young people:

"We know that being active with others and being part of a sports community can be crucial for children and young people's experience of mental health. That is why we are standing strong in our collaboration with Ballerup Municipality, The Mary Foundation, ISCA and our financial partners: the EU, the Lauritzen Foundation and the Obel Family Foundation. Together with these partners, we are striving to improve the wellbeing of the municipality's children and young people through close dialogue and collaboration with a number of sports clubs."

On the municipality's side, several departments are called upon to work together, including the Social and Health administration, the Culture and Leisure administration and the Child and Youth Counselling Service, which each support the purpose of the initiative to boost the wellbeing of children and young people through collaboration.

Mayor Jesper Würtzen (A) says he is satisfied about the work being across the municipality so far:

"In Ballerup Municipality, we work together across the organisation, and we are happy to collaborate with volunteers. By working across the board with different approaches and methods, we get better results for the benefit of our children and young people."

*Facts about the projects in the collaboration

The collaboration involves three sports projects 'Icehearts Europe', 'Lift' and 'Jump4Fun', which aim to develop sports opportunities and serve selected target groups of children and young people.

• Icehearts Europe is a collaboration with ISCA, which is funded externally by the EU and aims to strengthen the mental and physical health of vulnerable children through team sports.
• Lift is a collaboration with The Mary Foundation, funded by the Lauritzen Foundation and the Obel Family Foundation and works to track down and help lonely young people through safe leisure communities.
• Jump4Fun is a DGI concept that Ballerup Municipality finances, and in a collaboration they lift the effort with local sports clubs. The sports clubs offer activities for children with motor challenges and/or overweight.

We would like to thank the foundations and partners for their support, which makes all of these projects possible.

The collaboration between Ballerup Municipality and DGI runs until the end of 2025, but the sports projects have different lengths during and after the period.

This article has been translated from an original article published by DGI - read the article (in Danish) here.

Facts about the event

The kick-off event took place on 25 April 2024 at 5-8 pm at TAPETEN Association and Volunteer Center. The event was open to anyone interested in the work of promoting well-being for children and young people. “Come and hear more about our efforts and the projects, and find out how you as a volunteer or employee in a sports club, NGO, housing association, municipality, institution, school or similar can contribute to the well-being of children and young people in everyday life. We have an ambition to see as many different players at the kickoff event to reflect the new overall effort and the opportunity to expand the collaboration even more”.

Program

17.00 – Welcome speech by Mayor Jesper Würtzen

17.10 – “Leisure communities that strengthen wellbeing” Presentation
Wellbeing-promoting communities, where children and young people experience belonging and want to stay. By Søren Østergaard, Center for Youth Studies.

17.45 – Initiatives that work together
Presentation of initiatives such as Free passes for leisure activities, Mentors and the start-up of local sport activities. Initiatives that work together to promote the well-being of children and young people. By DGI & Ballerup Municipality.

18.00 – Dinner

18.30 – Workshops: How do we collaborate on the well-being of children and young people?
At the workshop, we focus on how we in practice can work together in order to get more children and young people involved in the sport communities. Lead by DGI and Ballerup Municipality

19.45 – Next step at DGI and Ballerup Municipality

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