Sports, Poverty and the Role of the Voluntary Sector. Exploring and Explaining Nonprofit Sports Clubs’ Efforts to Facilitate Participation of Socially Disadvantaged People

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• 作者：Hanne Vandermeerschen ; Jeroen Meganck&#8230
• 关键词：Nonprofit sports clubs ; Sports participation ; People in poverty ; Sports policy ; Social inclusion
• 刊名：VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations
• 出版年：2017
• 出版时间：February 2017
• 年：2017
• 卷：28
• 期：1
• 页码：307-334
• 全文大小：
• 刊物类别：Humanities, Social Sciences and Law
• 刊物主题：Social Sciences, general; Political Science; Social Policy;
• 出版者：Springer US
• ISSN：1573-7888
• 卷排序：28

文摘

Despite several decades of Sport for All policies, opportunities for sports participation are still unequally divided, with certain socially disadvantaged groups having less access to sports. To reduce this gap, structural efforts are needed. A question that arises is what role nonprofit sports clubs can fulfill in this matter. In this study, first, it is explored how nonprofit sports clubs perceive their role and responsibility towards socially disadvantaged groups and how they act on it. Second, it is investigated which factors predict the presence or absence of efforts from nonprofit sports clubs for lowering barriers. For this second question, we focus on people living in poverty. Data are based on a survey among 580 nonprofit sports clubs throughout Flanders (Belgium). The findings indicate that the human resources capacity of the club is not the main barrier. It is argued that local sports authorities and sports federations have an important part to play in supporting and encouraging sports clubs in terms of social inclusionary policies, for example by instilling awareness.