EYNCRIN YOUTH-LEAD SPORTS DEVELOPMENT CENTER aims at:

1. Increase awareness of the benefits of participation in sports and regular physical activity, as well as the importance of good nutrition.


2. Promote private- and public-sector strategies to increase youth participation in sports, encourage regular physical activity, and improve nutrition.


3. Develop metrics that gauge youth sports participation and physical activity to inform efforts that will improve participation in sports and regular physical activity among young European.



Sport is an inherently social process, bringing together players, teams, coaches, volunteers and spectators. Sport creates a horizontal bridge at the community level, with vertical links to national governments, sport federations, business leaders and other forms of support. Sport has emerged as global mass entertainment and has become one of the most powerful and far-reaching communications platforms in the world, thus also working as a platform for public education and social mobilization.


Why is Youth Sports Important?

Sport provides children with an outlet, ability to burn energy, character development opportunities, strengthens muscles and bones, a social circle, how to work within a team and positive role models to look up too in sports youth workers and coaches. Along with refining and becoming more efficient with a number of motor skills, youth athletes can develop skills like leadership, responsibility, and teamwork, as well as gain a greater understanding of the value of hard work.


Youth-centered Sport Education

EYNCRIN promotes a Youth-centered Sport Education that is based on the Sport Education Model (SEM). SEM offers the nearest approach to sports experience adapted to the school and non-formal organizational context, such as youth organization activities. The model was created because it became evident that physical education classes in formal and non-formal educational settings should not be limited to teaching techniques and tactics from multiple sports. European research has suggested that applying the Sport Education Model  in Physical Education increases young people’ motivation. The SEM offers a wide range of opportunities for young people to develop more self-determined motivated behavior in physical education activities. Therefore, the SEM should be considered when developing or adapting existing youth sports programs to promote young people’s intrinsic motivation to engage in physical activity.

Youth-centered Sport Education should make students cultivate their habits of exercising and improve their sports culture along the way.

The SEM is a curriculum and instructional model created to provide richer sports-related experiences for young people during Youth-centered Sport Education.

The model is organized around a series of characteristics, which are:

  • units are considered seasons,
  • young people are members of intact teams,
  • participation in youth competitions,
  • young people maintain roles beyond players,
  • formal records are kept, and 
  • young people participate in a culminating event.

Most research acknowledges that the SEM as a more effective model than the traditional and direct instruction model in various factors like students’ attitudes, motivation, or self-determination towards PE, mainly in less physically active young people.

According to the self-determination theory, intrinsic motivation is promoted by fulfilling competence, autonomy, and relatedness.

The SEM principles are related to these concepts, which may explain why investigations have purposed it to be related to greater young people motivation than traditional physical education models. For example, characteristics of the SEM, such as the festive finale, the youth-centered approach and autonomy, engagement, and peer relationships in physical activities, can contribute to greater motivation. In addition, the use of dynamic roles during the classes is viewed as an aspect with a very high relation to young people’s motivation. 


Youth-lead sports development programs


EYNCRIN is dedicated to promote youth development through sport and physical activity.


Guided by our core values (Inclusion, Collaboration, Fun and Accountability), our Youth-Lead Sports Development Program is designed with a special focus on social interaction skills. Young leaders learn to embody acceptance, trust, empowerment and respect, as well as how to lead team-building and decision-making with creativity and confidence.

We value sensitivity in our Youth Leadership curriculum; there is understanding around the challenges that at-risk youth may face including struggles with mental health issues, poverty, criminal activity, poor school attendance, foster care or homelessness. Our youth leaders learn how to create supportive environments that feel safe, comfortable and flexible to maximize the benefits of sports for children.

Aside from facilitating our sports programs with an open mindset, the youth leaders are largely trained in mentorship development. Mentoring relationships often naturally occur between youth leaders and the young people they coach. Equipped with the conscientious tools we provide through our Leadership programs, our leaders are able to nurture strong, trusting relationships with their kids and help them to further develop their athletic abilities and inner confidence. Many of the young people supported by our Youth-Lead Sports Development Program return later on to train as youth leaders themselves, thus promoting a cycle of giving back.


The Youth-Lead Sports Development Center at the EYNCRIN brings a wide range of unique skills, expertise, resources and relationships to the sport for development and leadership sector.  According to recent research undertaken by the International Business Leaders Forum, these resources extend well beyond funding and include contributions like project management skills, branding, communications and marketing expertise, management support and fundraising activity.


Physical activity contexts are popular environments for youth work programming and offer rich atmospheres for the development of youth  life skills. Participation in physical activity. has been associated with more positive experiences related to emotional regulation, initiative, and teamwork, compared to other youth activities. However, researchers have asserted that youth do not develop life skills simply through participating in physical activity. ; rather, programs that incorporate intentional strategies for developing life skills show optimal effectiveness in building those skills in youth members. These intentionally structured programs are referred to as physical-activity-based positive youth development  programs.
Multiple scholars have identified leadership as an important life skill for youth to develop and that all young people have the potential to be leaders (e.g., Gould & Voelker, 2010; Jones & Lavallee, 2009; Martinek & Hellison, 2009). Fostering leadership skills has been associated with enhanced confidence, increased motivation and engagement, and career-related success (Extejt & Smith, 2009; Hammond-Diedrich & Walsh, 2006; Hoffman, Vargas, & Santos, 2008). Given the value of leadership, researcher point out that youth-lead sports best leverage leadership opportunities in youth programming.


A major goal of the EYNCRIN Youth-Lead Sport Development Center is to provide young people and youth workers with a non-licensure program designed to increase their knowledge and understanding in teaching and leading in community-based youth serving agencies.

It also provides ample opportunity for community based research and evaluation.

Our trainees will gain competencies in:

  • sports development program design
  • delivering youth-lead sports training
  • implementation and evaluation
  • funds development
  • community collaboration
  • volunteer and staff management/supervision
  • addressing social inequalities
  • cross-cultural awareness.


We deliver: 

  • Support for young people, particularly those that don’t feel sport and being physically active is for them. We help get them active in their community, in the way that best works for them and their friends 
  • A more confident and capable youth sector workforce, blending good quality youth work with good quality, innovative sports training, leadership and qualifications. 
  • Capacity building and connectivity into the local sports infrastructure  
  • A broad range of competitions, experience days, festivals and themed residential experiences 


Youth Minority Sports 


Sport is an integral part of the culture of almost every nation. While many perceive it to be unsuitable for girls and women, it can be used as a tool to promote gender equity and empower girls and women. Research on sport, gender, and development indicates that sport can benefit girls and women by enhancing their health and well-being, increasing their self-esteem, and challenging gender norms.