Using rugby to help young adults: the success of the Turn-Over project

#THIS ARTICLE IN DUTCH is written by Emma Meertens | translated by Liesbeth Wallien

Since 2013 Turn-Over has been committed to helping young adults with behavioural issues. Using rugby to try to get this target group back on track, the project has meanwhile been able to help over 950 young adults. We spoke with the founder and driving force of the organization: Joeri Peperkamp.

Nobody knows better what sports can do than Joeri Peperkamp. He was in his twenties when he was going through a difficult period, mentally. In the end rugby pulled him through. Peperkamp had been playing basketball for years, but at some point no longer enjoyed playing. ‘Often I was fouled out after the first half. My team mates jokingly told me I should switch to rugby.’ And that’s exactly what he did. The Castricum rugby club welcomed him with open arms, and he soon discovered the power of this sport.

Retraining as a youth worker
But it was only years later that the seed for the Turn-Over project was sown, in 2008, when Peperkamp was involved in a car accident. Facing a long process of rehabilitation, he decided to go back to school. ‘I knew that staying at home was not a good idea. Because I wanted to help others, I retrained as a youth worker’, Turn-Over’s founder explains. He worked at several (closed) juvenile institutions. It always struck him that he was not allowed to play sports with them.

Although he frequently pointed out that young adults benefited from playing sports, the situation did not change. Peperkamp quit his job and started training young adults individually. At the same time he came across a project in England that was similar to Turn-Over. ‘My first thought was: ‘We have to do this in the Netherlands. I rewrote the English project in Dutch, and got started, together with my partner Olga (de Graaf, ed.).’

Start of Turn-Over project
Together they reached out to youth workers and local policemen asking them which young adults could do with some help. They found 8 to 10 candidates. They bought an old mini-van, hired someone and got to work at Castricum rugby club. Peperkamp and De Graaf paid everything out of their own pockets, because the initial response was not very favourable. ‘But once we got started, we invited the municipal council and the UWV to come and have a look. They were surprised when they saw with their own eyes how well it worked.’

After some time the target group shifted to young boys and girls between 14 and 18 years old. ‘These are young people that do not attend school and are this close to ending up in crime. We make it our goal to preserve them from placement in care and imprisonment. We want them back in school so they can get a diploma’, Joeri Peperkamp emphasizes. ‘We also support juveniles in detention, in the hope that we can effect a permanent behaviour change.’

Intensive ProgrammeYoung adults joining Turn-Over start a three-month cycle in which they work on behaviour change. About four mornings a week the young adults are picked up and taken to the rugby club. ‘We start every day with chores, a healthy breakfast and sports practice. Rugby, more often than not. Of course they don’t have to turn into rugby players, but we do want to teach them the basics.’ The afternoons often focus on cognitive training. The assistants have one-on-one sessions with the young adults, but there are also frequent workshops by athletes at the (inter) national top. Star rugby players Fabian Holland and Delon Armitage, for instance, are associated with the project.

But top athletes from other types of sports are closely involved as well. Jorina Baars – ten times world champion kickboxing – is one of the project’s ambassadors. ‘Our team is furthermore made up of skj'ers, a psychologist and a remedial educationalist. We work with juvenile institutions and schools. When we just began, we had to do the rounds. Now they come to us.’ By bidding for tenders of local councils and educational/juvenile institutions, the project’s financial future is secured.

Another major alliance has been formed with the Dutch Rugby Federation. The Federation considers Turn-Over a good example of how to promote rugby in the Netherlands. And the lines of communication between the Federation and Turn-Over have only become shorter since Turn-Over relocated its headquarters to the National Rugby Stadium Amsterdam. In the future Peperkamp would love to use their facilities to teach the Turn-Over method to youth workers, for example. Not just youth workers from the Netherlands, but from other countries as well. ‘We have locations all over the Randstad conurbation and want to expand to the rest of the Netherlands. And next year we will launch similar projects in Belgium and France.’

But Peperkamp wants to make one thing clear: ‘You don’t get projects like this going overnight. It is extremely intensive, and we want to take expansion slowly. Of course you want to help everyone. But you get one shot only with these young people, so you want to take it really easy.’

Turn-Over’s Success
Meanwhile some 950 young adults have benefited from the project. Peperkamp and his co-workers monitor the (former) participants every quarter, and share data with the CBS. With the organisation’s tenth anniversary around the corner, they have become even closer. Peperkamp: ‘With some of them I am in touch on a regular basis. They give me a call and we go for a cuppa. It is good to hear their stories and to see where they are now.’

For more information: www.turn-over.nl