We explore the ‘urban capacity’ of a city or municipality and detect further opportunities with the following steps:
- Data analysis of a city or municipality in view of urban sports, demography, infrastructure, existing offerings, accessibility, participation rates, results of citizen surveys, etc.
- Mapping of all available urban sports infrastructure on a comprehensible map, along with an on-site screening of the locations based upon their spatial features.
- Insights on the target group and their environment. We engage with the target group, neighbours, and relevant youth/sports organisations that operate in the urban scene. We figure out the social dynamics of the urban sports locations and gain an understanding of the particular needs and requirements of their various users. The approach taken with this module strongly depends on the local context and target group, which will ultimately define the most appropriate form: producing radio programmes/media with youth, podcast sessions, a session with our urban sports squad, adding to the existing (youth) offerings with engaging ways of working, and more.
- Vision development: lessons learned from previous steps are included in a clarifying report. We facilitate a workshop based on these findings with city services and the organisations involved in which we develop the future dream for urban sports and discuss how to support it from a policy standpoint in both the short and long term. All results are delivered in the form of an urban sports vision statement.
The U.S.E. can be used as the foundation of a broader strategic plan for creating innovative and broadly supported municipal policies for urban sports. In the second stage, it can also result in specific and tailored interventions.
