CONFERENCE SUMMARY

“Shaping the New Generation of Active Kids

28 SEPTEMBER 2018, La Tricoterie, Brussels (BEL)

On September 28th 2018, Sport and Citizenship think tank together with Nike and the Federation of European Sporting Goods Industry (FESI), held a conference entitled “Shaping the new generation of active kids”. Held within the framework of the European Week of Sport (EWoS) 2018, upon the European School Sport Day, the conference brought together around 60 participants, including representatives from public administrations, academia, politics, the sport industry and local associations.

Under the moderation of Marine Marck, a French journalist, the conference opened with the introductory remarks of Bogdan Wenta (MEP and Vice President of the Sport Intergroup) via video message, followed by Maria-Luisa Fernandez Esteban (Deputy director Sport unit, European Commission) and completed by Laurent Thieule (President of Sport and Citizenship think tank). Dan Burrows (Global Community Impact, Nike) walked the audience through Made to Play’s numerous efforts to get kids more active via games and sports. Within this context, he interviewed the athlete Clémence Calvin (silver medalist at the last European Athletics Championships in Berlin, August 2018) who shared inspiring insight into her career as an athlete and her own commitment to engage kids in physical activity. In the subsequent panel discussion, Richard Bailey (ICSSPE), Wendelin Hübner (Key City Activation Berlin, Adidas), David Blough (Play International) and Ivar Oosterveld (Foot Locker Europe) tackled the issue of helping schools become a more active and healthy environment for kids. Concluding remarks were finally given by Jérôme Pero (FESI).

CONFERENCE KEY POINTS TO REMEMBER

1. Redefining school programs: making Physical Activity (PA) a cross-cutting area

Developing new government policies: reshaping school timetables and activities to include PA as a major component. The most effective next step would be to include PA in the PISA ratings.

Teachers and school leaders can make a difference by transforming schools into active schools. Specialist PE teachers will have a greater effect on lifestyle habits by teaching in primary schools. Other teachers need to be trained and shown how to use PA in traditional school subjects and make their classes interactive.

2. Cross-sector collaboration

“Cross-sector collaboration” was the panel’s Leitmotiv. All stakeholders (international, European, national, regional and local policymakers, NGOs, teachers and the sport industry) must team-up and push in the same direction, if concrete measures in favour of greater PA at school are to be implemented. The representatives of the sport industry, putting aside their competitive rivalries, acknowledged their common social responsibility to fight sedentarity and promote PA. In fact, the sport industry’s messages shall be used as a means to make schools more active.

3.Signature of the Brussels Active Kids Statement

The signatories made a pledge to fully commit to the promotion of active schools. They acknowledge the need for action at the international, national, regional and local levels to develop roadmaps, strategies and programs. The Statement creates a window of opportunity to fully mobilise cross-sector actors to engage schools in PA. The Statement remains open to all: here!

See the conference pictures on our Flickr!

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Noémie Gingue – Communication manager noemie.gingue@sportetcitoyennete.com

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