SHA Strategy

The SHA Strategy - 2025-2029 (and on to 2037!)

The Scottish Handball Association always listens to clubs, players and our wider stakeholders as we develop. As we came towards the end of our previous strategic cycle in the summer of 2025, we worked even more closely with a wide range of stakeholders across 2024 and early 2025 to develop a new Strategy. This included our Board, our clubs, the EHF, SportScotland, IHF and Commercial and other Partners too. Whilst we have to take a closer look at the more immediate term (more like an Operational Plan, e.g. over the first 4 years), for the first time, we wanted to set that in the context of a much more longer-term set of aims and ambitions - this is the overall Strategy.

As you will see from the title, Purposeful Growth, we want to grow - but in a planned and deliberate way. We want to expand our reach - e.g. Walking Handball, Whelchair Handball and Beach Handball - but only when we can do so in a meaningful way...and without dropping any of our committments to our current structure that supports youth development, community club expansion and club support and growth. In addition, we are working towards the re-establishment of Scotland as an international Handball nation - but that will take time too.

We have attached our outline Strategy below and hope you find this helpful to understand what we do, why we do it (!) and how it all fits together towards our strategic aims. As ever, feedback is always welcome so please reach out to any of the team if you wish to discuss this further and how this might be something you want to comment on, or get involved in.

Our Vision:

By the end of this full strategic cycle in 2037, we are aiming for:

The realisation of a plan to maximise our opportunities, create a fully sustainable handball community across Scotland, ensure that what we do has real and genuine impact, and deliver a legacy that will see Handball continue to thrive long into the future

This will be noted by the visibility of the following outcomes:
A pathway for everyone in society through whatever route is best for them into being part of our community throughout life - very much in keeping with the European Handball Federation’s “Circle of a Handball life”
Positive impact on all our Communities which will be measured by a significant increase in representation, in particular, from Women and Girls, Older players and disabled athletes
A minimum number of fully accredited Clubs, each with sustainable youth development programmes who participate in all available competitive opportunities
A strong Senior Women’s League
A strong Senior Men’s League
A vibrant Scottish National Academy that creates opportunities for the most talented and ambitious players to play international handball
Significant growth in numbers participating in the Referee Academy resulting in a sustainable, healthy and engaged Official workforce
Increased media coverage of Handball across all platforms

Our Values:

The Future:

We envisage a future where there is:

greater representation and participation from all our communities in our sport across Scotland
where Handball continues to be enjoyed and played across each and every one of our demographic cohorts, and;
where people can easily see where we have helped to make an impact and positively change lives

We also aspire, and will work, to:

regular media coverage of our sport thereby helping to increase the visibility and the numbers of people engaging with our sport
a wider appreciation of the lessons from other small nations with a view to how we best grow our sport here in Scotland
greater numbers of teams and players from all parts of Scotland; people from rural areas, cities and towns and covering all corners of Scotland
the growth in infrastructure and planning to support all of these ambitions - much of it led by the SHA, but delivered by partners, volunteers and other stakeholders; all with a committed alignment to our values and approach

You can read Part 1 of the Strategy here

and;

You can read Part 2 of the Strategy here