They are already familiar with it at many sports clubs in Drenthe, but the project is located in, say, Malta The Safe Changing Room still in its infancy. Nevertheless, partly under the leadership of rainbow ambassador Henk Nijmeijer, it is gaining more and more of an international foothold.
The University of Malta is even so interested in the Drenthe initiative that they have invited Nijmeijer to write a paper about the success of The Safe Changing Room. He may present the conclusions on the island on Thursday.
The Safe Changing Room started in 2022 with the aim of creating a safe sports culture for everyone, regardless of sexual orientation, gender or origin.
Nijmeijer is not at all surprised that there is international interest in the project. “The core is the collaboration between the province of Drenthe, municipalities and sports clubs,” he says. “Together they are working on a cultural change at sports clubs.”
The fact that the initiative is so successful here is partly because the Netherlands is a typical association country, in which sports clubs work a lot with governments. That is not the case everywhere.
“They find that very interesting in Malta,” the rainbow ambassador explains. “How is it possible that associations in the Netherlands, including in rural areas, work together with governments on inclusion?” Together with Michiel Odijk, former member of Parliament for GroenLinks in Utrecht, he tried to answer that question in the paper.
