Key principles

For the process of assembling the team, certain conditions and factors in relation to children should be considered, such as: living in deprived areas, in large families, in single parent or in culturally and linguistically disadvantaged families (e.g. migrants and refugees); having special educational needs or difficulties in dealing with relationships and emotions; needing help with homework or difficulties at school; not having the opportunity to participate in a sports-recreational activity outside school.

In general, targeting socio-economically disadvantaged areas or neighbourhoods can increase synergy with resources, services and institutions already present in the area.

Each Icehearts Europe mentor is dedicated to a group/team consisting of up to 20 children or young people. The groups are composed of children and young people that are of similar age, with an age gap of fewer than three years and are mixed with respect to their needs and abilities/skills.

Source: Icehearts Europe Model, 2023

While the 20 children and young people will initially be selected by the implemnting organisations – supported by its network of local stakeholders – it will be up to the mentor to find the balance in terms of group composition.

Would you like to know more about how to select the children and build an Icehearts team?

Insights: How to find and recruit kids

The characteristics of the participating kids vary depending on the area of implementation of the intervention and will be defined by the grassroots sport organisation. 

Each team consists of two groups: 

• the core group, consisting of vulnerable children/adolescents, considered to be at high risk of social exclusion 

The typical concerns include impulsiveness, learning and concentration difficulties, and behavioural and emotional disorders. Some of these children also suffer from neurological and motor function disorders.

• the balancing group, composed of the children with the least needs or vulnerabilities. 

Besides children of the core group, children with less severe challenges in life (balancing children) are invited to the programme. Typical criteria for these “balancing children” include a low-income family background, immigrant background, several siblings or single parent family, a condition in which the family has challenges to offer the child a meaningful leisure-time activity.

Since this is a preventive intervention, the assembly of an Icehearts Europe team should start as early as possible, preferably when the child is around the age of 6.  

The grassroots sport organisation manages the selection of children for the team in cooperation with other service professionals in the area.

In particular, one key recommendation from the Icehearts Europe Implementation Guide is that the recruitment of the target group can be done or strongly supported by schools. This key recommendation has been tested and supported by pilot organisations. School staff (including social workers) were identified by Estonia and Spain for example as the most important source of information about children. Generally in Italy, this will not be the case, however, in the Italian city of Genoa, a strong relationship between UISP and local schools does exist, and the latter will assist in the recruitment of children. In Slovenia, a national system of youth centres will provide recommendations, whilst the Danish team has identified that the organisations running social housing developments will be in the best position to suggest children in need.