Sport as a lever for inclusion, a portrait of the young people concerned and what they say themselves - the foundations of the STEP project.
Sport is not a side leisure activity. It is a complete learning space: it builds discipline, how to handle failure, team spirit, and the ability to set goals and stick to them. All skills that transfer directly to entrepreneurship.
In priority neighbourhoods, sport is often one of the few places where a young person can experience success, be recognised, progress and lead. It creates group dynamics, bonds of trust and an active attitude towards life.
It is no coincidence that many entrepreneurs in wellness and coaching come from tough areas. They learned on a football pitch, in a boxing gym, on a parkour spot - and they carried those lessons into their professional activity.
The sports coach is often the first entrepreneurial role model a young person from the neighbourhood sees up close. Someone who works for themselves, manages clients, sets prices, builds a reputation. A concrete, accessible, visible model.
In France, people increasingly talk about the socio-sports coach - a new profession that blends social support, sports practice and life-skills development. This is exactly the crossover the STEP project wants to build on.
"Physical activity builds a certain mental balance - you could call it a mindset. And that mindset is everyday life too. You don't need to be an entrepreneur to develop it. Action creates motivation, not the other way round."
The young people STEP targets are not defined by failure. They are defined by a context that has piled up obstacles in their way - and by a resilience that institutions often underestimate.
In France as in Cyprus, the profile is similar: young adults aged 18 to 30, often from priority urban neighbourhoods, with a complicated relationship with school, strong experience of the informal economy (organising events, informal coaching, small trading) and creativity that goes unrecognised.
The concept of NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training) is useful as a statistical tool - but it does not capture the complexity of people's paths. Many of these young people learn, create and run projects off the institutional radar.
In France, Ginkgo Sport works mainly in the priority neighbourhoods of Tourcoing (Hauts-de-France), an area with structurally high youth unemployment and a large population with a migrant background.
In Cyprus, ARISTA DEKA supports young people in a post-crisis economic context, with inclusion challenges specific to small island economies. Both contexts share the same paradox: young people with potential, few organisations to tap into it, and sport as common ground.
The same is true on the Cypriot side: Cyprus has set up a national grant scheme for young and women entrepreneurs, showing that both partner countries identify the same priority groups. The schemes are compared in more detail in Part 3.
Before offering tools, the STEP project wanted to listen. These quotes, collected during field sessions in France and Cyprus, paint the portrait of a generation that is not short of drive - but short of ways in.
I know I'm capable. I see people around me succeeding in sport. But I really don't know where to start. Nobody ever explained the steps to me.
Sport taught me everything. Discipline, teamwork, how to manage a group. But in my head it wasn't a real job. It took a while before I told myself I could make a living from it.
I tried to set up my business but I got lost in the paperwork. I needed someone to show me. Not someone telling me "go look it up online". Someone actually there.
"There's still room for the small players. Over 50% of brick-and-mortar businesses close within 3 years. The ones that last are those who understand that service and proximity are their real added value."
Three key lessons shape the following parts of the guide:
1. The need for concrete, relatable role models. Generic resources are not enough. These young people need to see people like them succeed - and understand how they did it.
2. Human support before digital tools. Access to information is not the problem. Connections, presence, long-term follow-up - that is what makes the difference.
3. Recognising informal skills. What these young people have learned through sport, in their neighbourhood, in life - that is already capital. They need help to name it, formalise it and showcase it.