Volunteering is one of the most important pillars of sport, which is why the National Institute of Physical Activity and Sports (INAPS) organised the Gamechangers event for strong volunteering in sport for the third time. The conference took a closer look at where the real pain points lie.
Financial pressure on clubs is mounting, finding sponsors is becoming ever harder, and recruiting new volunteers can no longer be taken for granted. These points and others emerged from a survey involving around 870 people.
Another trend is also at play. Many people today want to do sport more flexibly and no longer tie themselves to a single club for years on end.
Charles Stelmes, director of INAPS, said the survey had shown that, in terms of the resources clubs have to run their programmes and training, things are getting tougher. Volunteering is in decline, he added, which he sees as a huge challenge, especially for sport, since it is almost entirely built on the work of volunteers.
INAPS is taking various measures to support clubs. Alongside a new system for applying for financial assistance, further adjustments are intended to help reverse the decline in volunteering.
Sports Minister Martine Hansen noted that there are fewer and fewer volunteers, which is also a generational matter. People work all day, she said, and they also have families, so they do not necessarily have the time to give freely. The aim, she added, has to be to strengthen clubs and perhaps give them the means to ease the load on the volunteers who are there, since the administrative burden keeps growing. That might mean paying some staff, so that volunteers can focus on what they really came to do, since most people, she said, do not necessarily want to spend their evenings sitting in an office.
A number of measures were also presented at the event. Training on topics such as event management and sponsorship is to be put on, and a helpline offering clubs personal contact, including for legal questions, is already up and running. Plans are also in place to continue the municipal tour and to set up three regional workshops.
These measures show that INAPS wants to offer more targeted support to sports clubs to counter the decline of traditional volunteering, with the aim of ensuring that it remains the driving force of Luxembourg sport in the years to come.
