26 March 2025

Christa Compas: ‘Het is een ‘feel-good’ fonds!’

Looking back at twelve year Youth Fund  

Christa Compas was involved with the Youth Fund for Sports & Culture for over twelve years. In December 2024, she stepped down from the Supervisory Board. Looking back, she recalls a sense of decisiveness and positivity. She considers the Youth Fund a truly "feel-good" fund: just try finding someone who doesn't like children playing sports and singing.  

Turn a dime into a quarter

Compas is a child of the 1970s. Their motto back then? Progress is possible; you must always keep trying to turn a dime into a quarter. By creating and seizing opportunities. "That's how I've always experienced it. I firmly believe that this is also possible for the current generation of children – regardless of their home situation, they should be given opportunities to participate," says Compas.

Football bag instead of diagnosis. When she first encountered the Youth Fund in 2013, she was working at an educational consultancy in Amsterdam. The agency sent school social workers, experts in reading and math, and psychologists to schools to conduct tests with children. "Then we'd get reports, and children would be given a 'label.' I increasingly started wondering: what good is a research report and a diagnosis? Don't (some) children benefit more from positive experiences and concrete activities? Couldn't we better support them in sports, for example? Grab a football bag, put on some shoes, and join a team. Wouldn't they benefit so much more from that? It was by chance that I was told about the Youth Fund."

She was incredibly impressed by the organization's relative simplicity. Improving children's well-being and development simply by allowing them to participate in sports (sports and culture were still two separate funds at the time, ed.).

Sport builds character

"Sports is so much more than just kicking a ball around or scoring a goal. I've seen that with my two children too. It's learning to cope with setbacks, showing up on time, developing discipline (even when you don't feel like it), belonging, experiencing a sense of responsibility, and persevering—it builds character. Moreover, at a sports club, you often break out of your social bubble. And that enriches your life." She adds that it's obviously important to get children moving in these times of couch potato binges and obesity. But her deepest motivation for contributing to the fund lies in the social and personal skills that sports develop.

Fund that everyone loves

According to Compas, everyone thinks that allowing Dutch children to play sports, sing, and dance is a good idea. A fund that makes this possible is endearing. "It's much less controversial than, say, development aid. The Youth Fund is truly a huge 'feel-good' fund. It's no wonder that sports heroes like Marianne Vos are happy to join as ambassadors. It always gave me a positive feeling, too."

It's also a modest fund. We just fix it and don't have to be on TV all the time. Activities are often local, and the children are always the main goal – not the fund or its administrators. For me, that's the strength of the Youth Fund, remaining both approachable and modest. This 'simple' formula has led to the support of more than 80,000 Dutch children annually. "Amazing, isn't it?"

Most beautiful memory

If she had to recall one memory that stood out in all those years, it was the start of the Tour de France in Utrecht in 2015. "Parallel to the starting stage, the Youth Fund also organized a starting stage. But for children. From Utrecht to Paris. That was fantastic! I didn't cycle myself, mind you; I'm not very athletic. I row, but my children certainly didn't get their athletic genes from me!" 

Christa Compass is the learning approach program manager at the Realization Unit, a delivery unit of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. She is currently addressing the persistent teacher shortage. From 2013 to 2024, she was involved with the Youth Fund for Sports and Culture, first as a board member and later as a member of the Supervisory Board.  

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