Sports-based programs can be vehicles to bolster the social and emotional skills of vulnerable young people

Social work centers and community programs seek innovative approaches for the integration of vulnerable children and youth into society. Trendy workshops on social networking and quality leisure time attract young people. However, as the safety of children is a priority for parents, they are very interested in involving their children in sports activities under the auspices of experts.

The Center for Social Work and Sports Organization can join forces, and use sport as a driving force for development in the local community. Such a joint program is interesting from a social, health, and sports point of view.

Here is an example of a joint youth resilience program that includes workshops on safe falling skills (judo ukemi skills) as injury prevention. Using sports methods, professionals and staff detect children and young people with perceived problems and enable them to be included in the day centers of community youth programs. In the Slovenian capital Ljubljana, such a program was successfully implemented by the Judo Club Golovec and The Center for Social Work Ljubljana.

”Falls on the playground are a common cause of injuries to children. We also detected them in our protégés. That is why we were especially pleased with the idea of learning to fall safely, "

said Vitomir Simuni?ek, coordinator of community youth programs at The Center for Social Work Ljubljana. Falling is still the most common cause of injury in statistics in children. Therefore learning how to fall safely with judo techniques: having the right reflexes to roll, absorbing the fall with the hands and feet, protecting the head, is an ideal way to prevent or at least reduce the number of injuries from falling accidents. Judo is a comprehensive and wonderful system of physical, intellectual, and moral education. It has its own culture, system, legacy, and tradition. It also teaches young people principles of ethics and a way of life. 

"The workshops on judo ukemi skills are great fun! We learn to roll, to front fall and to secure our head and face, to side fall without straining our elbows or shoulders and back fall, etc. The workshop also offers young people learning the values for life, such as cooperation, friendship, respect, and courage, as children participate in pairs, or in groups during lessons,"

said Jure Lampe, a judo instructor and a graduate of the International Judo Federation Academy. In recent years, Judo club Golovec has invested a lot of effort in a broader mission, which is to contribute to a better quality of life and sustainable progress in the local community. Development projects are implemented in cooperation with the City of Ljubljana and its district communities, the private sector, and also on international projects.