Thijs de Greeff and Beau de Leeuw – Speakers at the 22nd EFDN Conference
Thijs de Greeff, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and LGBT+ specialist at All-In Foundation, and Beau de Leeuw, MSc., an expert on gender diversity, will be featured speakers at the 22nd EFDN #MoreThanFootball Conference in Leuven, Belgium, on the 20th of November.
Thijs, a former elite field hockey player, has transitioned into a dedicated trainer and DEI advisor for various national sports organizations in the Netherlands. He draws from his rich experience in the field to foster inclusivity. One of Thijs’s most impactful contributions to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) was a Q&A session with the president of the International Field Hockey Association (FIH) and children from Dutch field hockey clubs in low-income neighbourhoods. The interaction, enriched by questions in Arabic, underscored the power of diversity and left the children inspired.
Beau de Leeuw has built a career advocating for LGBTQ+ inclusion in sports. With years of experience working as an expert in this area, they completed a master’s thesis in 2022 on the experiences of non-cisgender athletes in Dutch grassroots sports. Collaborating with the John Blankenstein Foundation, Beau brings both professional and personal insights into the inclusion of transgender and gender-diverse athletes. Currently, Beau consults with sports organizations on fostering environments that are welcoming to all athletes.
The joint presentation, titled “Inclusive Coaching,” will focus on the concept of building Inclusive Competence in educational and sports settings. The session will cover three key components:
- Definition of inclusive competence: understanding the skills needed to become inclusive team members or classmates, thus fostering a welcoming environment in diverse educational and sports contexts.
- Importance of inclusion: highlighting the need for these skills to create positive, inclusive spaces for everyone, particularly in schools and sports teams.
- Practical training: participants will receive a booklet of exercises to build their inclusive skills, with opportunities to practice selected exercises during the session for immediate application in their own teams or classrooms.
Attendees will leave with actionable strategies to promote inclusion through practical exercises and real-life examples. The session promises to be an engaging and insightful exploration of how to use sports as a catalyst for social change.
Register for the conference here.
