The effect of a community sport program on health and social capital through sport participation

Evolutions in the public health, social and sport sector have made collaboration a bare necessity. Policy makers realize that these inter-sect collaborations are mandatory, but find little research to base their decisions on (Klesges, Dzewaltowski, & Glasgow, 2008). This study wants to provide empirical evidence to policy makers and practitioners by investigating the effectiveness of a community sport program in Flanders (i.e., the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium). This project aims at building community capacity to raise social capital and health by increasing sport participation and is directed to people who experience higher thresholds to engage in sports.Four communities implementing the community sport program were selected through stratified random sampling. Four control communities similar to the sport program communities were chosen to compare the results. Two hundred adults (aged 18-56 years) of each community were randomly selected. Potential respondents were visited at home and asked to respond to a questionnaire constituted of six parts: socio-demographics, physical activity, sport participation, community sport, health and social capital. At least 40 respondents per community needed to fill in the questionnaire.At the EURAM 2013 we intend to present the effects of this community sport program to sport participation and its effects on health and social capital.Evolutions in the public health, social and sport sector have made collaboration a bare necessity. Policy makers realize that these inter-sect collaborations are mandatory, but find little research to base their decisions on (Klesges, Dzewaltowski, & Glasgow, 2008). This study wants to provide empirical evidence to policy makers and practitioners by investigating the effectiveness of a community sport program in Flanders (i.e., the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium). This project aims at building community capacity to raise social capital and health by increasing sport participation and is directed to people who experience higher thresholds to engage in sports.Four communities implementing the community sport program were selected through stratified random sampling. Four control communities similar to the sport program communities were chosen to compare the results. Two hundred adults (aged 18-56 years) of each community were randomly selected. Potential respondents were visited at home and asked to respond to a questionnaire constituted of six parts: socio-demographics, physical activity, sport participation, community sport, health and social capital. At least 40 respondents per community needed to fill in the questionnaire.At the EURAM 2013 we intend to present the effects of this community sport program to sport participation and its effects on health and social capital.C