ANTA Group: Implementing “Thriving Program” to help teenagers achieve sports dreams

Company profile
 
Established in 1991, ANTA Group is a comprehensive sporting goods company specializing in the design, production, sales and operation of sports equipment such as sportswear and accessories. After more than 20 years of development, ANTA Group has grown into a public company with international competitiveness and modern governance structure. It is China's largest multi-brand sporting goods group. In recent years, ANTA Group has continuously implemented the “single focus, multi-brand, omni-channel” strategy. The group now has many domestic and international brands such as ANTA, Fila, Descente, Sprandi, Kolon Sport, KingKow, ANTA-kids and Fila-kids, fully meeting the diverse needs of consumers at different levels.
 
Challenges
 
Sports carries the dream of national prosperity and national rejuvenation, and teenagers are more vital to the future of national development. However, the sports development in primary and secondary school in underdeveloped areas in China has become a bottleneck for the realization of ambitious goal of “promoting healthy China and implementing youth sports activity promotion plan” proposed in the 13th Five-Year Plan. There are 367 million teenagers in China, of which more than 40 million are in poverty. Most of these teenagers have great enthusiasm and desire for sports, but they are subject to conditions such as poor facilities, incomplete teaching equipment and shortage of physical education teachers, so they cannot obtain professional and high-quality physical education. Helping more teenagers to improve their physical fitness, boost their spirits and strengthen their physical fitness is the initial intention of ANTA Group for public welfare.
 
Solutions
 
In 2017, ANTA group joined hands with the China Youth Development Foundation and Adream Foundation to launch the “Thriving Program” and set up an ANTA Special Fund for donating 500 million yuan of funds and equipment. ANTA combines its own sports resources and starts from three major projects, namely, equipment donation, literacy education and sports curriculum promotion, to help teenagers in less developed regions in 34 provinces and cities nationwide improve their physical fitness and sports standards.
 
Conducting sports research to identify the direction of project implementation
 
ANTA conducts research on the status quo of youth sports in primary and secondary schools in 325 underdeveloped areas across 18 provinces, including Fujian, Hunan and Inner Mongolia. A total of 12,000 students and their parents were surveyed to learn about campus physical education and student sports education.
 
The survey found that more than 70% of students love sports and are eager to receive better physical education. However, primary and secondary school students in the surveyed areas generally thought that the physical education curriculum is extremely boring and there is no corresponding sports equipment. Schools are also constrained by major factors such as poor sports facilities, fewer sports equipment, and insufficient physical education teachers. They cannot give children a high-quality sports environment. The survey identifies the types and quantities of donated sports equipment for “Thriving Program” and the cultivation ideas for youth sports literacy.
 
Giving full play to the advANTAges of resources to help children access to professional sports equipment
 
According to the survey, most teenagers in underdeveloped areas lack sports equipment that matches physical education. ANTA combined the resources advANTAges in equipment with high production and good quality, and joined hands with the China Youth Development Foundation and Adream Foundation to donate sports equipment such as sports shoes, sportswear, and sports equipment to teenagers of the "Project Hope " schools in underdeveloped areas nationwide, letting every teenager access to professional sports equipment and use professional exercise fitness equipment.
 
Teaching sports knowledge to enable children to enjoy professional sports classes
 
China attaches great importance to the development of youth sports. The huge gap of physical education teachers has become an urgent problem. Beginning in May 2017, ANTA and Chinese Foundation for Teacher Development jointly launched a physical education teacher training program in batches and sub-regions across the country. The plan provides special training for the theoretical training and physical education practice of adolescent physical education for sports teachers and the person in charge of physical education in all types of primary and secondary schools. The rich special lectures and concentrated training are used to carry out the theoretical knowledge learning of campus physical education. At the same time, sports teaching exercises and practice sessions will be set up to enhance the training effect and promote rapid application.
 
In August 2017, ANTA and Adream Foundation launched the first ANTA Dream Training Camp in Acheng District, Harbin, Heilongjiang Province. As coaches, famous football player Fan Zhiyi and others led more than 100 teenagers in the Acheng area to learn football skills and make them receive professional football training.
 
Donating a Dream Center to let children receive literacy education
 
ANTA and Adream Foundation takes “developing literacy education, promoting a balanced education and social progress through education” as their mission, and aim to “help children grow confidently, calmly and with dignity”, so they built ANTA Dream Center together. “Dream Center” is the core public welfare product of Adream. It integrates Internet, multimedia, books and classrooms, and distributes in standardized classrooms in remote areas. It is a space carrier that carries the mission of literacy education. The “Dream Center” relies on the existing teachers and is equipped with donated sports equipment, and rural sports teacher resources cultivated by ANTA to provide 40 interdisciplinary dream courses for children. In 2017, ANTA built 7 Dream Centers nationwide and plans to build 25 centers totally in 2018. In the next few years, ANTA plans to build 500 Dream Centers.
 
Achievement
 
Social benefit
 
In 2017, ANTA built 7 Dream Centers nationwide. More than 17 million yuan of equipment was donated to Fujian, Hunan, Guizhou and other underdeveloped regions, benefiting 35,000 teenagers in 146 schools. Every year, ANTA will donate an average of 30 million yuan in sports equipment and explore the happy sports model. By developing a variety of "Dream Sports Courses", it features targeted education and poverty alleviation to promote the use of better equipment for local teenagers, and help them receive better physical education. At the same time, ANTA public welfare action has also set an exemplary role in the industry to promote the Chinese sports goods industry to contribute to the Chinese teenager sports.
 
Economic benefit
 
Through ANTA brand equipment donation, teenager sports literacy education and the promotion of Dream Courses, the program takes targeted education and poverty alleviation as features and has made a practical contribution to the youth sports in underdeveloped areas in China, greatly enhancing the influence and reputation of ANTA brand in China. At the same time, ANTA has nurtured more consumers for the future sports industry through youth sports education, driving the development of the sports industry
 
Prospect
 
ANTA will provide sports equipment such as sports shoes, sportswear, as well as sports equipment to teenager from underdeveloped areas in 34 provinces and cities through the “Thriving Program”. ANTA will donate more than 500 ANTA Dream Centers and train more than 10,000 rural sports teachers, working with R&D institutions for professional course to develop the Dream Sports course and promote the ANTA Sports Dream Course to schools with “Dream Centers”. In the future, more than 10 million teenagers will be able to receive better physical education to improve their sports literacy.