CITYLEGENDS x VLAANDEREN

Urban Sports in Flanders

We had a unique opportunity to work with the Flemish government, cities, municipalities and federations to improve the urban climate. Commissioned by Sport Flanders, we helped federations to properly implement urban in their traditional structures. A varied and lengthy project in which we worked with regular partners Innobeweeglab, IDEA Consult and Vital Cities.

The partners we worked with

• Flemish government: SportVlaanderen

• Federations: Breaking Vlaanderen, Cycling Vlaanderen, Basketbal Vlaanderen, Skate Vlaanderen, Fros Multisports, GymFed

• 10+ Cities and municipalities: Ghent, Antwerp, Kortrijk, Duffel, Erpe-Mere, ...

The approach

We provided the federations with 1-to-1 guidance and workshops on their communications. Moreover, we gave each of them the opportunity to raise an additional internal issue that we worked on together.

'Urban Sports Trails' were also organised, during which five expert sessions were held on topics including urban knowledge sharing and support, developments on a global scale and best practices. Ten Flemish municipalities (including Antwerp, Ghent, Kortrijk, Duffel and Erper-Meeren) joined in. This yielded interesting crossover s to address needs at the urban level, explore the possible added role that federations can play for this and jointly take next steps.

The result?

Six urban federations were able to embed urban more strongly in their structures, each in their own way.

Internally, more knowledge has been gained and support created compared to classic sports within federations.

Federations and municipalities are more strongly connected

Infrastructure issues have been answered and various infra concepts have been developed.

Social impact of urban has been clarified, and can be used commercially, communicatively and socially.

Above all, the knowledge, network and impact of urban has grown. Much has been learned about urban sports, but also about the culture and the contribution it has on realising a livelier city and healthier society.

For more in-depth information, please feel free to email yorick@citylegends.nl.