Organisational readiness and capacity building strategies of sporting organisations to promote health

Abstract

This paper explored the readiness of Victorian State Sporting Organisations (SSOs) in Australia to implement health promotion (HP) programs and sought to understand how they implemented capacity building strategies to promote health. Ten SSOs that received funding to develop and implement HP were recruited for the study. Interviews were conducted with key staff from SSOs and focus groups were undertaken with their Boards of Management. Factors analysed were SSO organisational readiness and capacity building strategies to implement change in organisational processes, organisation and resources, and systems and controls. SSOs made a concerted effort to create and support sport and recreation contexts that promote healthy behaviours. A number of SSOs achieved changes in their culture and systems by implementing formalised and systematic programs such as the club development program. The club development program supported the implementation and sustainability of HP throughout the organisational system of the SSO. These changes, however, were dependent upon organisational readiness; particularly climate and capacity, whereby financially "well off" SSOs had the capacity to engage in HP in a significant way. This paper highlights opportunities and challenges for policy makers to fund HP within sporting organisations; especially when the delivery of sport is a more immediate responsibility than HP.

Leveraging Mega Events for Capacity Building in Voluntary Sport Organisations

“…For example, British Cycling did not need to see a national Olympic strategy to engage with the Games but others were less proactive, as the RCCSF's president explicated ''no, we did not develop a dedicated Games' strategy' ' (personal communications, March 24, 2015). Evidence suggests that it was possible to develop organisational strategies in a new field (Casey et al 2011) and that cities with a strategy for leveraging mega events received substantially more benefits than those without a strategy (Kellett, et al 2008). Strategy development and implementation were the major challenges for both community organisations (Doherty, et al 2014) and VSOs (Frawley et al 2013) who tended to be preoccupied with day-to-day concerns.…”

Are they ‘worth their weight in gold’? Sport for older adults: benefits and barriers of their participation for sporting organisations

“…An example of this would be the Rusty Rackets programme that Tennis South Australia ran in conjunction with Active Ageing Australia (van Uffelen et al, 2015). Whilst research has suggested that engaging with non-sporting community organisations may require sporting organisations to devote more time to engage and consolidate these relationships (Casey et al, 2012), developing these relationships could prove beneficial in the long term. However organisational capacity building strategies specific to the population group of older adults are unlikely to be widely adopted, when the current sport policy landscape prioritises younger age groups.…”

Guidelines for Youth Sports Clubs to Develop, Implement, and Assess Health Promotion Within Its Activities

“…The youth sports club is one of the new, under-utilized, but developing settings for health promotion (Kokko, Green & Kannas, 2013). The concept of the health promoting sports club (HPSC) was launched in 2004 in Finland (Kokko, 2005), and it has thereafter been expanded across Europe (Geidne, Quennerstedt & Eriksson, 2013;Van Hoye, Sarrazin, Kokko & Heuze, 2013), as well as internationally (Donaldson & Finch, 2012), especially in Australia (Casey, Payne & Eime, 2012;Dobbinson, Hayman & Livingston, 2006;Kelly et al, 2013). Table 1 Shared and settings-specific features of health promoting settings described in the health promotion literature, with a sports club addition (Kokko 2010).…”