MARGINALISED CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE

Lykkeliga – teaching material

Since 2017, Lykkeliga has progressed from being established in a single club with about 30 players to 76 clubs with about 1200 players in all parts of the kingdom. Lykkeliga is a national club-based handball campaign which includes children and adolescents aged 5-18 who have a disability or in some other way do not fit in with ‘traditional club sports’. It is interesting because this target group statistically is less physically active and more overweight than the general population. This is a problem, since physical inactivity increases the risk of a large number of diseases.

The cornerstone of Lykkeliga is the effort of more than 400 voluntary coaches who work extremely hard for children and young people with special needs. It is a problem, however, for the organisers of Lykkeliga, that the coaches’ abilities and skills vary a great deal between individual clubs, and working with the target group makes great demands on the coaches’ knowledge and experience.

“We are delighted that the Vissing Foundation has decided to support the project. The objective is to develop teaching material to support the Lykkeliga coaches’ practice. It is to ensure that they have the best possible conditions for helping children and young people with special needs to enjoy social and sporting success and take part actively in the life of their clubs,” says Niels Rossing, Assistant Professor, at the Department of Health Science and Technology at Aalborg University.