11/8-2023STREET SPORTS included in the THE LAUNCH OF THE WELL-BEING COMMISSION
On Friday, August 11th, the government unveiled the so-called Well-being Commission in the company of children and young people in street sports communities. Meaningful communities, safety, and resilience are some of the themes of the commission, and the launch took place in the company of several of the street sports communities who tend to work with those thems in specific – creating secure communities for children and youth, including those who are unfamiliar with sports communities.
Three ministers meet street sports-operators
Present at the launch at GAME Streetmekka Copenhagen were danish Minister of Culture, Jacob Engel Schmidt, Minister of Children and Education, Mattias Tesfaye, and Minister of Digitalization and Equality, Marie Bjerre, as well as members of the commission, volunteer coach at GAME, Khalil Abdeddaim, former chair of ‘Danske Skoleever’ (DSE), Marie Holt Hermansen, and chair of the commission, Rasmus Meyer.
Here, they experienced some of the street sports environments that create communities on the streets every day. Among them were Jacob Corneliussen from Pannahouse and Reda M’barek from Street Society, who have great success involving children and young people in street football, Gudrun Monachus and Line Nibe from Kollektive22, a skate community for women and non-binary individuals, as well as Katrine Nourouzi and Ilja Olsen from Street Movement and CPH Parkour, who promote parkour communities throughout all of Denmark.
Less business, more basket
There was also a bit of sweating involved when the ministers met commission member Khalil Abdeddaim, who has been a volunteer street basketball instructor and rolemodel at GAME in Sydbyen, Næstved for several years. The ministers and commission members followed Khalil’s example, took off their jackets and joined in on the asphalt for a basketball version of tic-tac-toe, one of the favorite exercises of the local children. Khalil shared his insights on how communities can become secure and promote well-being when they are built on life skills and rolemodels – when they are informal, free, inclusive, and without formal requirements for performance and equipment.
22-year-old Khalil is excited to be chosen for the well-being commission:
“I am very happy and also honored to be selected to be part of the well-being commission. It is indeed crucial work. Personally, I will advocate for the perspectives of children and young people. While experts and studies are important, children and young people are the experts on their own lives. They are the ones who know what they genuinely want and need, and we cannot do without that perspective,” says Khalil Abdeddaim.
About the Commission’s Work
The commissions primary task is to provide recommendations on how to prevent and address dissatisfaction and vulnerability, as well as how to strengthen resilience and empowerment. The commission is also going to examine the influence of social media and other major tendencies in society that are on the rise.
