Vlade Divac, the founder of the Foundation, has always connected his professional sports career and the values that sport represents with humanitarian work and support for communities. As a result, sport has naturally become part of the Foundation’s work with children, young people and local communities, creating opportunities for inclusion, empowerment, healthy lifestyles and stronger social connections.
In the coming period, we want to build on this experience by moving from individual sports activities towards a structured Sport for Development (S4D) approach that will be integrated into the Foundation’s existing programmes.
Our goal is not to make sport a new and separate programme area, but to use it strategically as a development tool in the areas where we have been working for many years - with children and young people, in rural and underserved communities, and with groups that have fewer opportunities.
Sport can be much more than physical activity. It can provide a space where children and young people develop life skills, confidence and resilience, adopt healthy habits, learn about cooperation and equality, and become more actively involved in their communities.
One of the important steps in developing this approach is the participation of Jelena Rakić, Project Manager at the Foundation, in the BOOST Mentoring Programme, a six-month European programme for practitioners working in the field of Sport for Social Impact.
Through individual mentoring and exchange with an international network of experts, the programme supports participants in developing concrete ideas and initiatives that use sport as a tool for positive social change.
Jelena’s mentor in the programme is Marisa Schlenker from the adidas Foundation. Together, they are exploring how experience from the sports and development sectors can be connected and how S4D methodologies can be adapted to the Foundation’s work.
The mentoring process has already created opportunities to develop new project ideas, apply to relevant funding opportunities, connect with potential partners, and further strengthen the Foundation’s knowledge and capacities in this field.
For Jelena, who combines many years of experience working with young people with coaching experience in women’s basketball, the BOOST programme is also an opportunity to bring together two areas of her professional experience - sport and community development.
“My mentor and I come from different sectors - she works within a sports foundation and wants to gain a better understanding of the development sector, while I come from a development foundation and am exploring how we can use sport more effectively to create social impact. Interestingly, I wanted to play football, but ended up on a basketball court because there was no women’s football club where I lived, while she started with basketball and later became a professional football player. These unexpected similarities made our conversations very natural and showed how mentoring can open up new directions when there is space for mutual learning. I am grateful to the BOOST programme for creating exactly this kind of space, and I am looking forward to seeing where this process will take us next,” says Jelena.
For the Foundation, participation in the BOOST programme represents one step in the longer-term development of its Sport for Development approach. We want to connect the knowledge and experience we already have from working with children, young people and local communities with new methodologies and partnerships, and to use sport even more effectively as a tool for social impact.
The goal is for sport in our future programmes to be more than an activity - to become a thoughtful and intentional way of creating opportunities for learning, connection, more equal participation, and the development of individuals and communities.
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