Evading in Remaining in “Esporte Cidadão” Project

Abstract

This study aims at describing and interpreting the evaluation offered by members of the Esporte Cidadão Social Project, anchored in sports and physical activities and developed in a low-income urban community in the Southeast of Brazil. The answers were obtained from 83 adolescents, boys and girls, 69 from whom left the project, while 14 are still engaged on such activities. We evaluated voice power and engagement of these two groups as well as the effect of their reaction to the inadequacy of the project, leading them to give up sports and physical activities. Critical Discourse Analysis of the answers revealed that the social project failed to achieve its member’s aims, since there wasn’t enough space for competition and other kinds of challenge. This main conclusion is that social projects coordinators must evaluate the interests and perspectives of the community they intend to intervene in and, above all, must offer challenging activities, able to meet participants’ goals.