Hello Boo-tribuners. I don’t come over here and post too often these days, since I am mostly focused at Euro Trib. But over the last few months I have been working on a research topic that may be of interest to some of you. My research examines how sport and play activities are being used by international organizations to help children and youth overcome trauma from disaster events. I am now close to completion on that big report, but this fall I was asked if I would be willing to write a shorter overview paper on the topic, for a conference in early December. I did that in collaboration with another person who is researching in the same area. And if you are interested in the topic, or just curious about what a fellow EuroTribe member is doing, here it is (it’s a pdf): Overcoming Trauma Through Sport, by Henley & Colliard
I have worked for over 20 years with people who have been traumatized in their lives, but this project was the first time I saw how sport is used to help kids with trauma, and it turns out to be a real new area of practice and research. The conference it will be presented at is the: 2nd Magglingen Conference on Sport & Development in Magglingen, Switzerland.
As it is, I have discovered that the whole field of “Sport and Development” is new, and there are some real interesting projects being done, where sports are used for “peace-building”, for overcoming racial divides, for education about HIV/AIDS, for getting street kids off the street, and so forth. Here is a website that can connect you to the area of Sport and Development (and I have been informed they are about to upgrade to a more user-friendly site soon). Sport and Development International Platform Also, if you want to look at some of the other papers that will be presented at the Magglingen Conference mentioned above, just follow the links to that page (there is an excellent paper I can recommend about “Gender Equity and Sports” by a Marianne Meier…a very important and interesting overview).
Okay, there you have it…enough shameless self-promotion…but if I can answer any questions about the work that is being done in this field, please feel free to ask. Thanks!
