Multisport enters western Zagreb

Through the local needs assessment, it was recognised that in the western part of the city of Zagreb there is little on offer for kids who want to do sports. The only thing available is football, which targets mainly boys. The problems arising from this lack of sport offer are:

-Exclusion from sport of a substantial part of the child population who are not interested in football

-Exclusion of kids whose parents don’t have the time, or the means to take them to different sport activities in other parts of the city

-Lack of organised physical activity outside regular school hours

-Children are deprived of socialisation that comes through participation in sport.

During the first SportOP! local working group meeting a few ideas were given as how to best address these problems. In the end HAŠK Mladost in collaboration with its field hockey section has developed a program to offer a new sport activity in cooperation with two elementary schools.

The program is being implemented through organised sport activities. Participation is free of charge and the activities take place twice a week with educated and experienced coaches. This is a structured sport program for enhancing physical, motor and coordination skills. Proven sport training methods are used to help children learn how to act in different social situations. The biggest benefit is that activities are organised in schools immediately after the end of school hours so there is no need for parents to take the children to training sessions. Additionally, the parents know that the children are in a safe environment with organised activities and adult supervision.