PhD, Associate Professor D.Y. Narkhov¹
PhD, Associate Professor E.N. Narkhova^1
1Ural Federal University named after the first President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin, Yekaterinburg

Abstract

Objective of the study was to analyze motivations for and priorities in the physical education and sports / healthy lifestyle domains based on reports of the federal grant foundations with their social investment technologies.

Methods and structure of the study. We analyzed, for the purposes of the study, reports and information materials of  "Rosmolodezh" Federal Agency for Youth Affairs, including information for the bidders in grant contest and experts, grant award reports, information on the most beneficial practices, content analyses of the grant contest bids of universities and individual bidders for expert valuations.

Results and discussion. The study demonstrates that the grant contest popularity and bidding statistics provide important information about regional youth motivations for and activity in the physical education and sports sector, with the specific project bids indicative of the most popular healthy lifestyle / physical education and sports service formats with the grant support requirements. It was also found that the modern grant contest technology in application to the socially valuable youth/ students initiatives in the physical education and sports sector is ranked among the most efficient youth health tools in the toolkit of the federal and regional physical education and sports sector development policies and practices under control of the Ministry of Sports to ensure the young people being actively involved in the physical education and sports infrastructure development, mass physical education and sports events hosting and new physical education and sports projects implementation initiatives. The grant contest models has proved highly beneficial, among other things, for the social initiative geography tracking purposes to timely update the relevant databases of the responsible governmental agencies and analyze progresses of the popular accessible physical education and sports / healthy lifestyle services in the regions.

Corresponding author: d_narkhov@mail.ru

Abstract

Objective of the study was to determine the level of motivation of young people and individual activity vectors in the field of physical education, sports and healthy lifestyle as part of the federal grant campaigns acting as a social investment technology.

Methods and structure of the study. The study included an analysis of the documents and information materials of the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs "Russian Youth" (information for participants of grant competitions, information for experts, orders concerning grant competition winners, information about the most successful practices), and content-analysis of applications for participation in university competitions from private individuals selected for expert evaluation.

Results and conclusions. It is noted that the degree of involvement and the quality of grant support requests serve as an indirect indicator of the level of formation of the appropriate environment and level of young people’s motivation for physical education and sports activities, and that the project content reveals the most in-demand project forms. The successful project drafts and the size of grant support were shown.

The authors conclude that the technology of grant support of socially significant initiatives of youth and students is an effective way to protect their health: along with the federal and regional programs of development of the physical education and sports sector implemented by the Ministry of Sports. Young people are actively involved in the development of the physical education and sports infrastructure, holding sports events, and the development of new types of physical education and sports activities that meet the youth interests.

At the same time, grant support makes it possible to clearly identify the geography of social initiatives, compare the data to the materials of the relevant authorities, and thus clarify the level of development of popular and accessible sports in the regions.

Keywords: social initiative, youth, students, sports, physical culture, grant support, state youth policy.

Background. Modern discussions of the youth support policies in the Russian society give a special priority to the governmental initiatives to encourage healthy youth communities and projects [3, 6]. Quite a few latest studies [1, 2, 5, et al.] have analyzed the inspiring youth fashion for healthy lifestyle and university students’ contributions to the national physical education and sports movement. It should also be noted that the national elite sports management agencies effectively facilitate progress of the national young population in every sport discipline, with a special emphasis on the grassroots youth physical education and sports movement and its advancement by the governmental youth policies and research community. Many analysts call for new management models for the university student sports. Thus N.V. Peshkova prioritizes, among the other potential solutions, the need to “control the university physical education and sports by the environment-focused soft power tools as required by the mission and objectives of the educational establishments” [4, p. 96]. We believe in this context that the youth and student social initiatives and activities in the physical education and sports domain deserve special research.

Objective of the study was to analyze motivations for and priorities in the physical education and sports / healthy lifestyle domains based on reports of the federal grant foundations with their social investment technologies.

Methods and structure of the study. We analyzed, for the purposes of the study, reports and information materials of "Rosmolodezh" Federal Agency for Youth Affairs, including information for the bidders in grant contest and experts, grant award reports, information on the most beneficial practices, content analyses of the grant contest bids of universities and individual bidders for expert valuations.

Results and discussion. The Presidential “Russia: Country of Opportunities” Platform successfully implements, among other initiatives, a grant contest of Youth Initiatives Project intended to encourage healthy lifestyle and mobilize young people for physical education and sports. The Project supports annual grant contests in line with the governmental policies to facilitate specific socially valuable initiatives and provide extra progress opportunities for the young people’s projects.

Since the Physical Education and Sports and Tourism nomination in the above Project is ranked among the key ones, numbers of the regional bids for this nomination may be indicative of the local youth’s motivations for physical education and sports, whilst contents of the bids demonstrate the most popular physical education and sports formats in the relevant Russian regions and municipalities. Moreover, the bidding activity analysis makes it possible to find the most active young people’ groups. Our own practical bids analyzing experiences in expert groups on commission from the Rosmolodezh Federal Agency in 2017-2020 showed that university students are much more likely than the other youth groups to win the grant contests due to their greater awareness of the grant contest rules and requirements plus better knowledge of the modern social design technologies.

The following reported data provide an insight into the scale and priorities of the youth initiatives. In 2018, the federal budget financing for the grant campaign was reported at RUR 2.5 billion for all kinds of grant contests, including the individual project grant budget of RUR 235.4 million, with the specific project grants limited by RUR 300 thousand. The grant contests commissions reported 7809 bids in every grant contest field, including 259 winning bids estimated at 16% of the total. The winning bids included 81 healthy lifestyle / physical education and sports project bids submitted from 41 constituents of the Russian Federation and estimated at RUR 15.150 million on the whole. The winning bids advanced the local sports promotion, sports event organizing, and educational initiatives support projects, plus new sports clubs and new sports ground development projects.

Youth progress opportunities of the above mechanisms were demonstrated by the 2020 Pan-Russian Grant Contest of Youth Projects accessible for the 14-30 year-old residents of the Russian Federation, with specific grants up to RUR 3 million and the total budget of RUR 1.151 billion; including the RUR 171.3 million budget for the Sports, Healthy Lifestyles and Tourism nomination. The Grant Contest collected 155 project bids from 53 regions of the Russian Federation, including 16 project bids from Moscow, 8 from the Moscow Oblast, 7 bids from the Republic of Ingushetia, 7 bids from Karelia, 7 bids from the Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, 6 bids from the Republic of Dagestan, 6 bids from the Sverdlovsk Oblast; 5 bids from the Perm Territory, 5 bids from the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), 5 bids from the Ryazan Oblast; and 4 or less bids from the other regions.

Of the six winning bids from the Sverdlovsk Oblast (that totaled RUR 10.4 million), three project bids were from the university physical education and sports activist groups including the Katadze Youth Sports and Education Camp Deployment Project; Mobile Guide for the Russian Ski Resorts Development Project by UrFU;  “Pride School” Sports Events Promoting School Associations Support Project by the Youth Government and UIU branch of RANEPA. In addition, two bids from the Sverdlovsk Oblast won the University grant contest for grants up to RUR 15 million, namely ‘Triathlon Mania” Resourcing and Training Center for Triathlon Teams by UGLU for the grant of RUR 700 thousand; and the "III Pan-Russian Student Games in Martial Arts” Project from the Ural Federal District based Ural State Law University, for the grant of RUR 4 million.

The 2020 grant campaign in progress has at this juncture generated an extra finance of RUR 15 million for the local governmental budgets for their youth healthy lifestyle / physical education and sports advancement projects. It should be emphasized that these projects are mostly unique and interdisciplinary and, hence, have high success chances in the other grant contest nominations. This is particularly true for the grant contest forum campaigns that are still limited in numbers albeit highly beneficial for a wide range of the youth and student healthy lifestyle / physical education and sports initiatives.

Conclusion. Modern grant contest technology in application to the socially valuable youth/ students initiatives in the physical education and sports sector is ranked among the most efficient youth health tools in the toolkit of the federal and regional physical education and sports sector development policies and practices under control of the Ministry of Sports to ensure the young people being actively involved in the physical education and sports infrastructure development, mass physical education and sports events hosting and new physical education and sports projects implementation initiatives. The grant contest models has proved highly beneficial, among other things, for the SI geography tracking purposes to timely update the relevant databases of the responsible governmental agencies and analyze progresses of the popular accessible physical education and sports / healthy lifestyle services in the regions.

References

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