Co-ordinated action between youth-care and sports: facilitators and barriers

In the Netherlands, youth-care organisations and community sports clubs
are collaborating to increase socially vulnerable youths’ participation in
sport. This is rooted in the idea that sports clubs are settings for youth
development. As not much is known about co-ordinated action involving
professional care organisations and community sports clubs, this study
aims to generate insight into facilitators of and barriers to successful coordinated
action between these two organisations. A cross-sectional study
was conducted using in-depth semi-structured qualitative interview data.
In total, 23 interviews were held at five locations where co-ordinated
action between youth-care and sports takes place. Interviewees were
youth-care workers, representatives from community sports clubs, and
Care Sport Connectors who were assigned to encourage and manage the
co-ordinated action. Using inductive coding procedures, this study shows
that existing and good relationships, a boundary spanner, care workers’
attitudes, knowledge and competences of the participants, organisational
policies and ambitions, and some elements external to the co-ordinated
action were reported to be facilitators or barriers. In addition, the
participants reported that the different facilitators and barriers influenced
the success of the co-ordinated action at different stages of the coordinated
action. Future research is recommended to further explore the
role of boundary spanners in co-ordinated action involving social care
organisations and community sports clubs, and to identify what external
elements (e.g. events, processes, national policies) are turning points in
the formation, implementation and continuation of such co-ordinated
action.