Big Bang Ballers

I chose the Big Bang Ballers association as I was very moved by their project. Big Bang Ballers is an association that uses basketball as a driver of integration and social cohesion.

I heard about it from Céline Coste, a Decathlon salesperson at the Echriolles store, and she motivated me to set off on this adventure. Before that, Céline had already taken part in one of their humanitarian projects in Senegal.

Sports activities at Decathlon, especially the FOUNDATION DAY event, helped us to get to know this association. We set up fun sports events in the store car park. This experience was repeated twice for the new club year.

An integration programme was then set up to recruit young athletes from the Grenoble suburbs, able-bodied or otherwise. As the store was 3 km from problem areas, it was also essential for us to open up to vulnerable young people and share the Big Bang Ballers’ educational and sporting values with them.

Our project “a court for all” was carried out in order to build an innovative basketball court for the beneficiaries of the Big Bang Ballers’ solidarity programmes, and the street players from the Grenoble urban area.

Through basketball and sport games, we would like to encourage access to sport for all and promote the educational values of practising sport. But we also want to use sport and the playing of it as a way to meet new people, promote togetherness and learn about citizenship.

Thanks to the training/pro meeting sessions held twice a year, young people had access to help with writing their CV and covering letter, as well as preparing for interviews. The beneficiaries appreciated that as it enabled many of them to find internships more easily, as they had been advised and coached first.

Story told by Decathlon teammate Karine Terrien.