ENGSO Youth Vice Chair Erik van Haaren shares insights on health-promoting sport clubs
The 12th conference of HEPA Europe, the European Network for the Promotion of Health-Enhancing Physical Activity, was hosted by the KU Leuven, on 11-13 September 2023, and jointly organized with WHO/Europe. As a side event, a panel discussion was organised where ENGSO Youth was invited to share the insights on the topic of health-promoting sport clubs, with a focus on Health Promoting Sports Clubs Policy Audit Tool.
Vice Chair Erik van Haaren attended the session, highlighting his expertise on the impact of sport on health, specifically mental health, and their correlation with healthy lifestyles. He also presented the challenges and opportunities sport brings in relation to health.
The event was a good opportunity to inspire the audience and raise awareness of the importance of sport and mental health, and share insight on how sport clubs can adjust their functioning and sessions to focus more on the overall health of their members.
ENGSO Youth has been advocating for the health-enhancing physical activity for the past few years, also as one of the partner organisations in the project Sport Clubs for Health which developed tools to improve the availability and quality of health improving sport activities.