How Sport for Social Change Can Create Change

The concept of SSC is established in the recognition that sport retains unique features which enable it to contribute to development and peace practices. These include:

• Universal popularity: sport crosses national, cultural, socio-economic and political boundaries; it can be used in virtually any community.
• Powerful communications platform: events reach vast audiences and serve public education and social mobilization.
• Ability to connect: sport is inherently social, bringing together players, teams, coaches, volunteers and spectators.
• Cross-cutting nature: sport can address a broad range of social and economic challenges.
• Potential to empower, motivate and inspire: sport draws on, develops, and showcases individual strengths and capacities.

SSC offers a powerful platform for advancing social inclusion and empowerment, particularly among migrant women who may face cultural and linguistic barriers and limited access to education, employment, and community life. In this context, sport becomes more than physical activity—it becomes a social bridge, a confidence-building tool, and a means of belonging. When combined with structured mentoring, SSC can foster personal growth, social connection, and leadership. This turns participation into meaningful pathways for integration, agency, and long-term change.

1) The Power of Sport as a Transformative Space

• Non-verbal communication in sport (teamwork, movement, cooperation) transcends language.
• Shared training and play build trust and solidarity.
• Sport settings often feel less institutional than formal integration or education programmes—ideal entry spaces.

Through sport, women experience empowerment, autonomy, and belonging—key preconditions for deeper inclusion.

2) The Role of Mentoring within SSC

Mentoring adds personal guidance, reflection, and skill transfer to the social/physical experience of participation. Forms include:

• Peer mentoring: participants support each other’s learning and adaptation.
• Role-model mentoring: women who have integrated through sport inspire and advise newcomers.
• Coach-mentor approach: coaches are trained to guide confidence, life skills, and personal growth.
• Community mentoring: links to local mentors (educators, entrepreneurs, social workers) for broader guidance.

Mentorship extends impact—from participation to personal development and integration.

At Hestia FC, migrant and refugee women play football while participating in workshops on leadership, Olympic values, and the Sustainable Development Goals. Coaches act as mentors, encouraging women to take initiative and lead warm-ups, organise activities, or speak publicly about their experiences. This dual focus—sport + mentorship—turns participation into a pathway for leadership and community engagement.

(You can add more practice examples here later.)

The objectives of SSC can be viewed at three levels:

1. Individual Level — Personal Development
2. Societal Level — More Fair and Inclusive Societies
3. Worldwide Level — Interfaith and Intercultural Understanding

1) Individual Level: Personal Development

SSC focuses on personal development and success. Physical activity cultivates empowerment and the move from intention to action. Achieving small goals builds self-efficacy and hope for the future. Individual success contributes to the common good: as participants pursue their aspirations, they also become part of a broader effort toward development.

2) Societal Level: Inclusive Communities

SSC sets social inclusion as a priority. Physical activity is used to combat social barriers and prejudice and to enable participation of diverse groups. Organisations promoting SSC secure the engagement of all social groups, excluding no one. For example, the Olympic Refugee Foundation supports the protection, development and empowerment of children and youth in vulnerable situations through sport.

3) Worldwide Level: Interfaith and Intercultural Understanding

Sport holds major power in international understanding. SSC recognises sport’s unique ability to contribute to development and peace processes around the world, spreading values of peace. Activities advocate intercultural understanding, respect and interfaith dialogue. SSC initiatives seek reconciliation of international confrontations and promote multicultural coexistence.