The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on sports-based youth development: the case of the rugby association ‘Rebonds!’

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on organisations that work with economically disadvantaged youth such as Rebonds! [Pick yourself up!], an association that provides educational rugby programmes to underprivileged young people in Toulouse, France. During the pandemic, this association experienced social change in the form of a double movement. First, its actors sought to preserve the fundamentals of the socialisation process that structures their work, which encourages young people to open up to the world and engage their bodies, while also introducing a new range of socialisation activities to address precarity and social inequality in healthcare. Second, because it was able to adapt its programmes to environmental constraints and remain strongly connected to all its partners, the association came to be perceived as a strong, stable, and seasoned community resource. At the same time, Rebonds! was able, during this period, to strengthen its legitimacy and the recognition it received from public institutions.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19 pandemic
• educational rugby
• social integration
• social change
• socialisation
• adaptation

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank everyone at the Rebonds! association and the youth who participate in the programme.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Rebonds! has received the following governmental accreditations: “Jeunesse et éducation populaire [Youth and Popular Education],” “Sport,” “Entreprise solidaire d’utilité sociale [Socially Responsible Enterprise],” and “Politique de la ville [Urban Policy].”

2 The broad and diverse network of potential funders includes around thirty public-sector partners (from the European Union to local authorities) and about forty private-sector partners (from sports organizations to corporate foundations).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jean-Charles Basson

Jean-Charles Basson is a political scientist. He is the director of the Institut Fédératif d'Études et de Recherches Interdisciplinaires Santé Société (IFERISS) at the University of Toulouse III and is a member of several university research groups (CERPOP, CreSco, LaSSP), a public health authority (Haut Conseil de la Santé Publique), and the International Union for Health Promotion and Education (IUHPE). His research focuses on the governance of populations in the fields of public health, public order, public space and education.

Loïc Sallé

Loïc Sallé is a sociologist. He is a member of the Sociologie, Histoire, Éducation, Représentations, Pratiques et Activités Sportives (SHERPAS) working group of the university’s multidisciplinary research group in sports, health, and society (URePSSS). His research focuses on the sociology of policy and administrative measures that are constructed and implemented to address social vulnerabilities.