KAA Gent Foundation

KAA Gent Foundation

KAA Gent is more than a football club. KAA Gent is an organization with a social purpose with a distinct social commitment: the KAA GENT FOUNDATION. Bringing together and strengthen the community of Gent is our most important mission. The KAA GENT FOUNDATION is the connecting force of KAA Gent.

It has been eight years since KAA Gent announced the establishment of its football in the community department with the publication of its social charter. KAA Gent, the supporters’ federation, and the city of Gent and Gent’s OCMW (Public Centre for Social Welfare) decided to join forces to realize this. In 2009 the non-profit organisation Voetbal in de Stad was founded as a unique public-private cooperation. Today the KAA GENT FOUNDATION is a well-respected innovative force, both in Gent’s sports environment and in the local community.

The basic mission of the KAA GENT FOUNDATION is supporting and organizing social and emancipatory projects for underprivileged groups. With the recruiting power of football, KAA Gent and the Ghelamco Arena, the KAA GENT FOUNDATION brings people together. KAA Gent Foundation strengthens all sorts of skills people need to improve to be able to function in society.

KAA GENT develops and supports a large number of projects benefitting society, youth football and solidarity between the club, local residents and supporters. A few examples of community projects: the Buffalo Cup school football tournament, social football for the homeless (KAA Gent Homeless Blue White), employment care for psychiatric patients (Buffalo Bustels), campaigns against homophobia, discrimination, racism and much more.

The social activities of KAA GENT FOUNDATION are also reflected in the excellent accessibility of the stadium for people with a physical disability and our encouragement of sustainable supporter transport. Under the motto Velo Buffalo, around 2000 KAA Gent supporters arrive at the stadium by bike for every match.

KAA Gent Foundation delivers the following programmes:

The KAA Gent Foundation uses football and KAA Gent as a means to make Ghent and the people of Ghent stronger. Through numerous social projects and activities, the organisation works on resilience (physical and mental health), talent development (sporting and personal), inclusion (everyone’s included), social cohesion (everyone together) and diversity with equal opportunities (non-discrimination).

Social-Sports Work:

• The KAA Gent Foundation sees itself as a social-sports practice. An organisation that believes that sport has the power to realise social dreams. Under the guidance of community coaches (socio-sports coaches), socio-sports activities are organised to allow those who participate to grow personally. Unconditional access and inclusion, the use of professionals, working with experts by experience and a strong cooperation with a solid network of social partners are the success factors of this socio-sports approach. In all of this, the connecting power of KAA Gent itself is an absolute trump card.
• Witty Buffaloes: Since 2015 they have organised a second social football operation: the Spirited Buffaloes. With the socio-sports approach, the Spiritual Buffaloes are given the opportunity to improve both their physical and mental health through football.
• Walking Football: Since 2016, the KAA Gent Foundation has been organising walking football for seniors. Healthy exercise and making friends are the main objectives of walking football.
• Buffalo League: KAA Gent moved to the Ghelamco Arena in 2013. Immediately, the KAA Gent Foundation made activities for the Nieuw Gent-Steenakker neighbourhood a priority. In early 2015, the Buffalo League was launched: omnisport for toddlers and children in the neighbourhood. With activities on Wednesdays and Saturdays led by community coaches, the talent development of the children is stimulated. For many in Nieuw Gent-Steenakker, the Buffalo League is the first acquaintance with their socio-sports activities. Today, more than fifty children and young people participate in the Buffalo League on a weekly basis. The success of the Buffalo League is due to the good cooperation with the primary schools in the neighbourhood.
• Buffalo Dance Acedemy: In 2017 the Buffalo Dance Academy opened its doors. Since then, children and young people from the neighbourhood Nieuw Gent-Steenakker have been dancing the night away in the gym of a local primary school. Meanwhile, the Buffalo Dance Academy has 30 members. Every week three dance sessions are organised. And today’s participants become the coaches of tomorrow.
• ”At Pino”: In the spring of 2017 they opened ‘At Pino’, an accessible meeting place in the heart of Nieuw Gent-Steenakker. Local residents drop by for a coffee, a chat and a smile. The volunteers of Bij Pino are the backbone of the operation. They run the coffee bar and help organise all the activities. Since the summer of 2020, the operation has been housed in a community centre. ‘At Pino’ is a meeting place and an incubator, where they think together with volunteers and local residents about how the KAA Gent Foundation can further strengthen the neighbourhood.
• KAA Gent in Neighbourhood Programme: KAA Gent wants to assist in building a beautiful future for Nieuw Gent-Steenakker, the “neighbourhood area” of the Ghelamco Arena, through working with inhabitants and local organisations who are working to improve the neighbourhood.

• Elk Talent Telt (Every Talent Counts): In 2014, the city of Ghent and KAA Gent awarded an important role to the KAA GENT FOUNDATION in the support of youth football in Gent. 15 football clubs in Gent accepted the invitation of the KAA GENT FOUNDATION. Together they have one goal: creating a pleasant football environment in Gent where the well-being of the children and youngsters is key and where every young player (male or female) gets the opportunity to develop both on a personal and on a sportive level, because Every Talent Counts.

• Heritage: The KAA GENT FOUNDATION sees football as culture and just like sports, culture strengthens people and societies. Thus, cooperation with cultural initiatives are not unusual for the KAA GENT FOUNDATION. This way KAA Gent builds broad public working around KAA Gent. Focal point of this public working are the stadium guides: committed fans who voluntarily guide around 12.500 visitors in the Ghelamco Arena.

• More than football initiatives: The guidance of fans with a disability at every game is another task that is assigned to the community working. The Foundation cooperates with INTER VLAANDEREN for this task and actively works with initiatives working to make Belgian football stadiums more accessible for the disabled, in the Ghelamco Arena as well as in other stadiums.

• Open Stadium: The KAA GENT FOUNDATION guarantees the use of the Ghelamco Arena for non-profit initiatives and social projects. The publicly accessible spaces in the football compartment of the stadium can be used for non-commercial activities by third parties for a total of 15 days every year.