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When Olena fled Ukraine in 2022, she left behind the career she had built in Kharkiv as a boxing coach and police trainer. In Berlin, she has found a way to keep doing the work she loves, coaching refugee women and children through SPORTS for MORE’s UNITED BOXING project.
“Because that’s exactly where I see the purpose of my work: to strengthen people through sport, to give them confidence, and to open up new perspectives for them,” she shared.
Olena’s story reflects something taking shape through our Sport Together Fund. Supported by New Balance Foundation, the Fund invests in community-led sport for development organizations and clubs working with refugees, migrants and others affected by displacement, strengthening connection, wellbeing and opportunity.
Across the Fund, young people are becoming more confident taking the lead in their new communities, supporting younger peers, organizing activities and stepping into roles they may not have imagined for themselves. At the same time, coaches with lived experience of displacement are bringing professional skills and expertise of their own, using what they already know to create opportunities for others.
In Paris, Fútbol Más France saw more young people joining its football sessions and invited older participants to step into “junior leader” roles, supporting younger children and helping shape the sessions themselves. What could have been a staffing challenge became, in the organization’s words, “a milestone for youth leadership and responsibility.”
The program centers on weekly socio-football sessions for displaced children and adolescents, with two-day camps during school holidays that give young people more time to play, connect and build relationships. Friendly matches with nearby schools and clubs create further opportunities to practice teamwork, respect and conflict resolution beyond their regular sessions.
In Madrid, David, a young migrant facilitator, took on increasing responsibility with Fútbol Más Spain while working with primary school children. Though he joined with limited experience working with young people, he quickly built strong connections and transformed into someone staff described as motivated, committed and eager to learn.
Over time, David strengthened his group management, conflict resolution and facilitation skills, moving from a supporting role to confidently leading sessions independently by the end of the program. Fútbol Más described his growth as one of the project’s most significant achievements, both for David and for its wider goal of building leadership within the community.
His development also happened alongside changes within local schools. Teachers began adopting Fútbol Más creative approaches that encouraged reflection, respect and teamwork, while students who initially struggled to play together became more comfortable taking part in mixed teams.
At Kabubu in France, responsibility looked different. Young people trained in facilitation and group management before helping deliver “Migration Fresco” workshops on migration journeys, asylum processes and inclusion.
They also took the lead in planning a mixed football tournament and women-only Olympic-style games, dividing up responsibilities across communications, outreach, rules, logistics and event delivery. Kabubu added an extra football tournament so participants could put those organizational and facilitation skills into practice before the final event.
The program also combined leadership opportunities with more everyday forms of support and discovery. Participants tried boxing, walking football, fitness and climbing, including a session led by Palestinian refugee and professional climber Afraa Mohammad. Alongside sport, young people could access workshops on housing, health and other support, with monthly follow-ups available if needed.
The shift from participation to contribution
Different programs, different roles, but a common shift: participation becoming contribution.
That shift takes more than access to a football pitch or boxing gym. It takes time, trust and opportunities for people to take real responsibility.
In the Netherlands, Sportief Besteed Groep works with young people from migrant and refugee backgrounds, including young men living at a local asylum reception center and newly arrived students in International Transition classes.
For young men at the reception center, weekly sessions offer something relatively simple but important: a regular chance to be active, see familiar faces and establish a routine. School-based activities introduce newly arrived students to different sports, classmates and local clubs, while girls’ sessions are concentrated around school holidays to help address some of the additional barriers they face in organized sport.
Consistency has mattered. Sportief Besteed Groep found that showing up regularly helped deepen relationships with participants and gave staff a better understanding of their interests, needs and barriers. Over time, the organization also prioritized instructors who participants could relate to and see as positive examples.
SPORTS for MORE has made that approach part of its model in Berlin, employing qualified coaches who share similar experiences with many of the young people they work with. For participants, that means seeing people with refugee backgrounds in positions of expertise and leadership. For coaches like Olena, it means having space to continue using the skills and experience they already bring.
The organization’s support also extends well beyond boxing. Alongside training, young people can access homework and school support, vocational guidance and counseling, as well as workshops on nutrition, empowerment and personal development. Two participants have been accepted into vocational training programs.
Inside the gym, that same sense of support shows up peer to peer. New members, many of whom have never boxed before, are shown the ropes by young boxers already involved in the program. SPORTS for MORE says participants describe training as “a good opportunity to exercise, as well as a way to find distraction, stability, and most of all new friends.” For some, the next step may be opening up to a social worker after months of silence. For others, it can mean becoming the peer who helps a newcomer settle in.
Together, these examples challenge a familiar way of talking about displacement. Refugees and migrants are often described primarily in terms of what they need, but these programs also show what people bring with them: professional experience, knowledge, skills and leadership that can create opportunities for others.
Building through disruption
That progress is happening against an unstable backdrop.
Some young people involved with SPORTS for MORE move frequently as their housing situations change, making regular attendance difficult. At the same time, the organization is navigating pressure on Berlin’s refugee housing system, cuts to public funding and the loss of spaces previously used for sport, even as demand remains high.
In Paris, Fútbol Más adjusted activities around school calendars, family needs and a summer heatwave. In the Netherlands, Sportief Besteed Groep adapted when school holidays and partner priorities affected when and how activities could take place. That flexibility became an important part of keeping sessions accessible and helping young people stay involved.
The progress made despite those pressures sharpens the case for what comes next.
Trust takes time to build. So does the journey from walking into a program for the first time to welcoming someone else, organizing an event or leading a session.
Fútbol Más France is building on three years of experience, including lessons from its junior leader model and school holiday programming. Sportief Besteed Groep is carrying those lessons into future programs and partnerships, including new work focused on girls with migrant and refugee backgrounds.
Sustained investment helps make that possible. It gives community organizations room to adapt when circumstances change, deepen relationships and create opportunities for people to take on new roles, rather than repeatedly starting again.
The fact that positive change can happen amid instability should not be read as evidence that organizations can simply keep doing more with less. Instead, it shows what can grow when community organizations have the time, flexibility and support to keep showing up.
For one young person, that might mean facilitating a first workshop. For another, it could mean taking responsibility for a tournament, supporting a younger teammate or welcoming someone new to the gym. For David, it meant moving from the sidelines of a session to leading it himself.
And for Olena, it has meant carrying the expertise she built in Kharkiv into a new community and using it to help others move forward.
Sport may be where those connections begin, but the confidence, skills and leadership people build there can reach far beyond it.
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