The project wants to activate and integrate young people after the pandemic that is seen to have affected their health negatively. It aims to promote community through sport and art, which in turn has a positive effect on environments, people, and entire communities. It’s the start of a long-term project where the organizers plan to open similar gathering places around Sweden. The organizers hope that ZON111 will help with social integration and create community, especially in vulnerable areas (a term applied by police in Sweden to areas with high crime rates and social exclusion).
— We believe that basketball and culture are a good first step towards young people starting to feel better again after the pandemic, but the basketball court is also a place for creating community. You can come here and do homework, hang out, book an appointment with a mentor, or watch art, says Iskias Araya, creative director at Hoop Dreams and initiator. He continues:
— Our mission is to create versatile hubs for social integration. Through local anchoring, cooperation, shared feelings, and experiences within a community that is distilled down to a physical place that becomes a center for the development and the flourishing of an area.
Among the participants in the program in Kungsträdgården are creators, coaches, coaches, leaders, associations, and artists, including photographer Faramarz Gosheh and artists Hank Grüner and Paloma Demanet, and 8 Swedish basketball national team players, including Fariyah Abdi, Kalis Llyod, and Melwin Pantzar.
