Coach the Coaches: Evaluating a Sport-and-Play Intervention in a Federal Asylum Center - Psychosocial Outcomes, mediators, and Process Factors

People living in asylum centers face high stress and few opportunities for meaningful activity. This project evaluates a practical response: training center staff to run leisure sport-and-play sessions on site. The aim is to reduce mental distress and strengthen day-to-day well-being using a low-cost, scalable “coach-the-coach” approach.

We use a mixed-methods design. Residents who join the research complete brief questionnaires at the start and after ten weeks. The primary outcome is mental distress. We also examine why change occurs, testing mindfulness, social support, physical self-concept, and rumination as potential mediators, and what makes sessions work in practice (attendance, perception of facilitators and enjoyment). Short interviews capture participants’ experiences to guide improvement.

The project is a collaboration between partners in Switzerland and Germany and a federal asylum center. Its relevance is twofold: it addresses a documented gap in psychosocial support for forcibly displaced people, and it offers a feasible model that centers can sustain beyond the study. If effective, the approach can be adapted to clinical, educational, and sport contexts. Results will support integrating regular, staff-led sport-and-play into routine center programming to reduce distress, foster connection, and bring moments of normality to life in the center.