Sports clubs are nowadays recognized for their potential to promote and organize physical activity, an important determinant of health. But they can also use the informal education potential of sport to empower sports participants and foster their social, mental and physical health, as well as community health and social capital.
To endorse this challenge, the Sports Clubs for Health working group of the Health Enhancing Physical Activity Network has been collaborating with the World Health Organisation to design the health promoting sports clubs national audit tool, to help countries of the WHO European Region. Fourteen researchers from seven countries have contributed to design the tool.
This document provides an introduction and users’ guide for the audit tool and the tool itself. The document also includes information on application of the “settings-based approach” to sports clubs, the health-promoting sports club approach and development and use of this tool. The assessment will provide a comprehensive overview of national health promotion policies and strategies related to sports clubs in your country, which may indicate gaps in national health promotion and sport strategies and indicate areas to be developed.
Completion of the tool may foster collaboration among government departments and organizations interested in a settings-based approach to health promotion. It can provide a catalyst for better communication, joint strategic planning and actions and collaboration among sectors for national health promotion policies in sports clubs.
The tool can be found on the World Health Organisation Website : Health Promoting Sports Clubs National Audit Tool
Aurélie Van Hoye is a Marie Curie Research Fellow at the Department of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, University of Limerick and Associate Professor at the Université de Lorraine (France).
Contact: @AurelieHoye ResearchGate aurelie.vanhoye@ul.ie
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