Young so-called 'new Danes' (immigrant or descendants of immigrants) do not participate in the traditional association activities as much as young 'old Danes' do.

Gam3 (pronounced as "game") is a multicultural sports- and integration project. Since 2002 the project offered streetbasket and hiphop for young people aged between 12 and 25. Through weekly training sessions and weekend camps in the local "Gam3 zones" and an annual finale event at the town hall square of Copenhagen, the aim is to promote integration of young immigrants living in deprived neighbourhoods. The aim is also to create interest among the youngsters for basketball and association activities.

Each zone has volunteer coaches connected. The coaches recieve a Gam3-kit containing balls, ghettoblaster, net for basket, various training exercises and rules.

The objective in the long run is to get the young people integrated into association activities according to the motto: If the young people will not seek sports, then sports must seeks the young people. The idea is that participation in creative and equal sports activities will support integration of the young immigrants and thereby prevent marginalisation, while giving the young people behavioural skills to help their integration into the Danish society.

The ambition of Gam3 is to meet the young people on their premise, in their neighbourhoods and speaking their language. For this reason Gam3 is different from the traditional range of association activities. In stead it represents a streetculture which ought to appeal to and attract young people.

Gam3 has a strong brand and the wish is to create a special Gam3-culture through a logo, merchandise, the start-kit and big events such as the finale event, that clearly shows who is in charge of the effort. Gam3 also created a website and here the members can chat and find out about coming events.

'New Danes' (immigrant or descendants of immigrants) aged between 12 and 25.

In 2005 there were Gam3 zones in 14 housing estates. Gam3 wishes to expand the concept to other deprived neighbourhoods. The evaluation of Gam3 in 2005 showed that, in total, 2260 young people participated in the weekly training sessions and 551 had participated in the 13 camps. The finale event on the town hall square in Copenhagen had 90 participating teams and a total of 372 participants.

A seperate aim was to increase the share of girls participating in Gam3 activities and the objective of having 1/4 of girls participating was reached in 2005. Now we are working specifically to attract girls.

The association Gam3 has 331 members in 2005. A measurement of the effect of Gam3 from 2004 showed that 13% of the members of basketball clubs in the neighbourhoods stated that the reason for membership was Gam3.

Gam3 primarily benefits the young people who elsehow would not have had spare time activity offers. Besides this, the weekly sessions and camps create life in the neighbourhoods and create attention to something positive happening in the area. Giving marginalised young people a meaningfull spare time occupation might have crime preventive effects and might be a measure to decrease the level of crime and vandalism in the area. Hence, the project will benefit the entire neighbourhood.

Gam3 is to a large extent based on volunteer work, but the project has a few paid workers.

In 2005 Gam3 recieved financial support from the Ministry of Integration together with support from the involved municipalities. Besides this, Gam3 has a range of private sponsors such as MTV, Nike and Copenhagen Technical School.

Gam3
Denmark
Simon Prahm, tel. 0045 27 28 81 60

01/01/2002

case

Urban Policy > Social inclusion & integration > Integration of social groups

Young people