The project

Why YIBinS?

YIBinS – Youth with immigrant background in Sport

YIBinS was created from the need to help and strengthen integration and social inclusion of youth with an immigrant background (YIB) that has emerged as an urgent yet controversial issue in the European Union. All around the EU, civil unrest can be seen from frustrated youth. This may be partially traced back to a growing number of dissatisfied immigrants in this demographic desperately trying to call attention to their daily struggles with discrimination, economic marginalization, and social exclusion. Young people with an immigration background is significantly more likely to become NEET (not in education, employment, or training) than their native-born counterparts—perhaps as much as 70 percent more likely, according to recent estimates from the European Monitoring Centre on Change (EMCC).

Also, research results have shown that there is a real need for collaboration among stakeholders in the Collaborative service process for YIB commitment and social inclusion. The stakeholders at grassroots level are municipality sport services, local sport organizations led by volunteer boards and educational organizations.

How are we going to achieve our aim?

We believe in the importance of placing the YIB individual in the centre and we aim to conceptualize how different structures and stakeholders within a network, from grassroots level to regional and central government, can be optimized cross-sectorally to advance social inclusion using sport as the main tool.

Our strategy is based on the use of the design thinking philosophy:

What do we want to achieve?

“Sport can facilitate the integration into society of migrants and persons of foreign origin as well as support inter-cultural dialogue.
Sport promotes a shared sense of belonging and participation and may therefore also be an important tool in the integration of immigrants.”

EU White Paper on Sport (2007)

Objective of this project is to use sports as the main catapulting agent in interconnecting structures and/or stakeholders within the community or network into working cross-sectorally to optimally facilitate the social inclusion, equal opportunities and integration of YIB’s, or youth with immigrant background, into society.

Design Thinking is a methodology used by designers to solve complex problems and find desirable solutions for clients. 
A design mindset is not problem-focused, it is solution focused and action oriented towards creating a preferred future.
Design Thinking draws upon logic, imagination, intuition, and systemic reasoning, to explore possibilities
of what could be—and to create desired outcomes that benefit the end user (the customer).”

– Tim Brown CEO, IDEO

Contact us

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Are you interested in taking part in the Yibins project?