FC Barcelona Foundation in support of mental health of adolescent refugees through sport

FC Barcelona Foundation in support of mental health of adolescent refugees through sport

FC Barcelona Foundation supports UNICEF Innocenti’s research, Winning the Game, which explores how Sport for Development helps improve the well-being of refugee children in Greece.

Globally, there were 37 million displaced children and adolescents in 2022, according to UNICEF. Fleeing from home due to conflict or natural disasters can cause traumatic processes that affect the mental health and well-being of all these children. The FC Barcelona Foundation has promoted the study Winning the Game developed by UNICEF Innocenti – Global Research and Foresight Centre, which shows how Sport for Development (S4D) can be a valuable tool to improve the emotional and physical well-being of displaced children.

The study was carried out in refugee camps in Greece, where the FC Barcelona Foundation is making its contribution to S4D through the implementation of the SportNet socio-educational methodology, which aims to improve the lives of children and young people living in vulnerable environments through sport.

Skills and values

The research shows that, through sport, children and adolescents at risk can improve their interpersonal skills, enhance values such as friendship, have mechanisms to deal with conflicts and regulate their emotions. Another noteworthy aspect of the report is that sport contributes to their schooling, including those children who are at greater risk of dropping out of school.

The results of today’s study also reveal that the successful influence of sport on development is based on engaging sports sessions, in a safe environment and with the presence of trusted coaches. The report provides programmatic guidance and recommendations that can be very useful for both policy makers and practitioners.

One of the lines of work of the partnership between UNICEF and the FC Barcelona Foundation has been to explore the impact of S4D on the lives of children and adolescents. For the past six years, the Foundation and UNICEF Innocenti – Global Research and Foresight Centre have produced several studies that show that sport is a formidable vehicle for improving educational outcomes and skills development for children and adolescents. Now Winning the Game, closes the circle that began with Getting into the Game and continued with Playing the GameI.