Guest editorial: Following the Turning Point Foundation’s lead to achieve inclusion in society through sailing – by Jens Kroker

It is a fact – Sailing gives a great feeling of self-efficacy, courage and self-confidence. Following this thought: what about providing sailing activity to people with a physical, intellectual or social handicap to boost courage and self-confidence and thus improve inclusion in our society?

This thought was the starting point for Heinz-Peter (Pit) Schmidt as founder of the TURNING POINT Foundation in Germany.

Pit himself has been sailing since childhood and has experienced many personal “turning points” as a result of his sailing activity. After having successfully sponsored an OCR youth team through to winning a European Championship title, he thought about how to enable “turning points” for people with a handicap to improve inclusion in society. Pit perceived how sailing helped his young sailors to grow as a team, to jointly master challenging situations, to build lifelong friendships and to gain confidence to achieve a personally and professionally fulfilled life.

I met Pit in 2021. I have competed for Germany at five Paralympic Games, winning a gold medal at Beijing 2008. Together with our wives, we worked on a plan to build a foundation to improve inclusion in society by using the sport of sailing.

Joining forces with the German Paralympic coaches and a team with experience in Inclusion Sailing, start-ups and NGO foundation, the plan gained speed.  The TURNING POINT Foundation went live in March 2021. Since then, TURNING POINT has grown to a team of more than 20 highly experienced coaches which has enabled sailing activity for already more than 600 mostly young people with a handicap. And as the sailing courses have been accompanied by a team of university scientists, interesting data was gathered that proves that sailing activity helps to build courage and self-confidence and thus helps to better master the challenges in life.

A key goal of TURNING POINT is maintaining the sustainability of their activities. To enable first-time sailing activity for handicapped people and see smiling, happy faces after a day on the water is one thing, but to achieve integration for handicapped people into sailing clubs, enable social integration and long-term “turning points” is a different challenge.

To make this happen, TURNING POINT is working closely with the German Sailing Association (DSV) and the related sailing clubs. Several months before sailing courses, club members are briefed, and a plan is made to provide follow-up sailing activities for newcomers and to achieve integration into club life. Coaches in the sailing clubs are “onboarded” by TURNING POINT and trained how to ensure a safe and life-enriching first sailing experience for handicapped people.

Feedback from sailing associations, clubs and social institutions that have partnered with TURNING POINT has been fantastic so far. Based on joint efforts a large number of participants are continuing their sailing activities after TURNING POINT events at their respective clubs. Club life gets more diverse, and the sport of sailing is a shining example of how to improve inclusion in society.

Going into the sailing year 2024, TURNING POINT will continue to substantially grow their team and related activities, including sailing courses, consulting and financial support for sailing clubs and education of coaches that want to provide sailing lessons to people with a handicap (“train-the-trainer”).

While so far being focused on Germany, TURNING POINT is open to sharing their expertise with sailing associations and clubs in other countries.

Having experienced the successes in Germany, the team at TURNING POINT is convinced that the sailing community can bring a meaningful impact to inclusion around the world. In a long-term vision this could lead to a completely different perception of sailing and the power of our brilliant sport in society.