The German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) held its National Launching Event on September 7.-8. 2023

The National Launching Event of the German Olympic Sports Confederation on September 7.-8., 2023, showed representatives from sports, politics and civil society in Berlin how equality and diversity can be advanced in sports organizations and what this has to do with oneself.

Docked on the Dialogue Forum of Sports Development, which was held under the motto "We make future for sports", the DOSB held its Launching Event of the Erasmus+ funded GAMES project and showed its goals and measures to get closer to the goal of more equality and diversity in leadership positions. From women* in presidencies to more visibility, from a diversity-sensitive association culture to a more diverse workforce in the office - based on an intersectional perspective that takes into account the different realities of people's lives, the equality of women* in leadership positions is being advanced and formulated as a goal.

Supported by the figures from the DOSB Gender Equality Report 2022 on the status of the implementation of gender equality in leadership positions, the necessity for action also in the member organizations was shown and explained to the visitors.

In addition to the theoretical insight, the focus was on self-awareness on the one hand and practical implementation on the other. With the aim of raising awareness and personal involvement, the topic was to be made more tangible and urgent.

For this purpose, the topic of diversity was addressed in an awareness-raising workshop and, together with the participants, it was examined how privileges and discrimination are distributed and to what extent they cause access and exclusion. At the same time, measures and ideas were formulated for different levels of power to counteract discrimination and exclusion of individual groups of people. In addition, a master class was held with the expert Dr. Charlotte Blum from the Allbright Foundation, which, based on sustainability, diversity and equal opportunities, highlighted the opportunities and potential of modern leadership and showed the participants examples of the leadership levers that can and must be tightened in order to make leadership positions more diverse and equal.

Both the workshop and the master class led to participants in both formats taking a closer look at the GAMES project and its goals, but also at the DOSB and its measures, and taking away ideas. The feedback was consistently positive and the will to shape their own organization was given.

In addition Furthermore to addressing the topics of promoting and demanding equality and diversity in leadership positions, visitors were given the opportunity to take a selfie in a photo booth, which they could then share on social media. All selfies were accompanied by one of a total of six possible statements on the topic of equality, diversity and change. In this way, the thematic focus was also implicitly disseminated.

Thanks to the wide reach of the dialog forum, GAMES was presented to and made accessible to a broad audience, sometimes even reaching people who otherwise have less explicit contact with the topics of equality and diversity. Relevant stakeholders across functional and hierarchical levels were addressed and sensitized.

Stay tuned with the progress of the project via the GAMES website and the Twitter account!