During the summer break for school children, AaB hosted the Get2Sport football school at the club’s facility in Aalborg Øst. The participating children were active on the pitch at AaB’s facility for the 5 days. Monday to Friday, the children actively played football with various drills and fun physical activities while having general education training in between the on-pitch sessions.

The sessions were carried out by AaB in collaboration with Sports Confederation of Denmark, the Ministry of Immigration and Integration and various foundations.

The football school required a roster of volunteers to take care of the planning of the week, while coaching in the classroom or on the pitch. Additionally, the school drew on a full-time employee from Sports Confederation and the local municipality, who supported the voluntary staff. Sports Confederation of Denmark supported the club in relation to transportation of members.

AaB and other clubs with similar activities in Denmark engage in a national network for knowledge-sharing purposes to learn more about what it takes to operate a voluntary based club in a socially vulnerable area.

The initiative is valuable help and support to the voluntary staff of AaB, which created a fantastic platform for all the children in the community, who will enjoy the social capital linked to sports club participation. The main purpose of recruiting and retaining leaders and coaches has been very successful and it had a positive spill-over effect on getting everyday life in a sports club such as AaB to work. It is easier to recruit and retain leaders and coaches if they are supported with learning tools; this was done by the national network listed above.

An assessment was done with 112 participants of the football school in AaB, which is the biggest football school in Denmark. This initiative should be continued as widely as possible as it is sustainable and helps to build bridges among people in the community and the club. The latter is significant in creating long-term impact.

The size of the football school was significant, and this is a great reflection of the hard and qualitative work of voluntary leaders and coaches, which again influences the participating children positively and leads to better recruitment and retention rates. It worked well to have an integration officer in this project.

The main struggle was to retain the members once they enter the teenage years.

The overall quality of leaders and coaches have been enhanced, which lead to:

• Better quality in everyday operations experienced by the children.
• Relationships that facilitate building bridges and establishing an important pool of social capital, which produces significant club and societal impact.
• Children with no or little access opportunities to AaB or sports participation being drawn to this project. This is important in terms of kick-starting a long-term membership for these children as they learn about the potential subsidies and ‘parachute initiatives’ from the local municipality and other Danish authorities, which may help less privileged children participate in sports.

This practice is innovative in the sense that it is catered to the needs of the local club. In AaB, Mohammed Agha served as an integration officer, who did a great job of coordinating activities among the many intercultural stakeholders engaging with the Get2Sport football school.

The recommendation for those organisations looking to implement a similar project is to have an integration officer. This person is vital in emphasizing the understanding of intercultural differences.