Sport, faith and belonging: FONTES report webinar

Register for the FONTES webinar
Date: Monday, 5 October 2026, 17:00 – 19:00 CET (Central European Time)
Language: English (live captioning available)

About

Elite football makes the headlines on faith, diversity and human rights almost daily. But what actually happens on the pitches in our neighbourhoods? While the media debates fasting fixtures and dress-code rules, grassroots clubs and social organisations have spent years building practical answers at ground level — often with little recognition and even less funding.

That is what FONTES set out to document. And the findings challenge some comfortable assumptions: sport does not integrate on its own; faith-based organisations carry far more of the delivery than the statistics suggest; women and girls only take part when programmes are designed for them; and religious literacy is the biggest untapped skill among practitioners.

The webinar will feature two moderated panels — one with practitioners on how integration actually happens on the ground, and one with policy actors, funders and researchers on what institutions need to do next.

Background

The FONTES project has produced the first cross-European evidence base on sport as a tool for social integration in multicultural and multi-faith settings — drawing on 29 best practices across 9 countries and 5 focus groups across 4 countries, and consultation with practitioners, faith-based actors, coaches, volunteers, young people, and reception-facility leadership.

The findings challenge some comfortable assumptions in the Sport for Development field: they show that sport does not integrate automatically, that faith-based organisations carry a heavier delivery load than headline statistics suggest, that female participation only happens by deliberate design, and that religious literacy is the largest unaddressed practitioner competency gap.

Objectives

• Understand the main findings of the FONTES Best Practices Research Report and their implications for practice
• Hear directly from practitioners about how the report's conclusions play out on the ground — including the tensions and unresolved questions
• Engage with the 10 recommendations from the focus groups and the 10 identified gaps in current practice
• Connect with peers across the FONTES consortium and the broader European Sport for Development network

Target Audience

• Practitioners in sport-based integration (coaches, youth workers, volunteers, programme coordinators)
• Faith-based organisations delivering sport programmes (Salesian networks, Caritas, Islamic and Jewish community sport, parish-level sport clubs)
• Reception-facility staff and civil society organisations working with migrants and refugees
• Municipal, national, and EU policy actors in sport, integration, and education
• Academic researchers in Sport for Development and Peace
• FONTES consortium partners and associate partners

Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the granting authority. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

Session Structure

Panel 1 — On the Ground: How Integration Actually Happens

Practitioners will speak to what the findings look like in daily practice: how newcomers come to feel they belong, how religious and cultural accommodation is worked out session by session, what it takes to bring women and girls in and keep them there, and why some programmes endure for decades while others end with their funding.

Panel 2 - Beyond the Project: What the Field Needs

Sport does not integrate on its own; faith-based organisations are carrying more of the delivery than the sector recognises; and religious literacy remains the largest gap in practitioner competency. Anchored in the report's 10 recommendations and 10 identified gaps, the panel will discuss how integration through sport can move from individual goodwill to something institutions design for, resource and sustain.

Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the granting authority. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.