NTG Tromsø: Norway’s Northern Guiding Light For Girls In Sports, Health, and Belonging
This week, Louise Mohn and her team from Meteva Sport og Helse traveled to Tromsø, Norway for a collaborative gathering with key leaders from Norges Toppidrettsgymnas (NTG), Tromsø IL (TIL), researchers, educators, and regional development stakeholders to discuss what many believe could become one of the most important investments in the future of girls’ sport in Norway.
A Meeting Of The Minds
The gathering brought together NTG colleagues Sigurd Rushfeldt, Robin Øgård, Øyvind Sandbakk, NTG Chairman Inge Andersen, NTG PhD candidate Martin Andersen, Professor Bente Morseth, Professor Svein Arne Pettersen, Tromsø TIL General Manager William Frantzen, TIL Women Sporting Director Edvard Vassmyr, and other NTG staff and partners who share a common vision for strengthening opportunities for young girls across Northern Norway and beyond.
A Pioneering Initiative For Girls
At the center of the discussions was a groundbreaking initiative currently operating under the working title Girls’ Academy (Jenteakademiet)—a collaboration between Louise Mohn’s NextGen Neighbor Network’s I care. initiative, TIL Women, NTG Tromsø, and NTG Junior High School that seeks to create stronger opportunities for girls, while redefining how sport can contribute to health, education, belonging, and personal development. Founded to address one of sport’s most persistent challenges—the significant dropout of girls during adolescence (around puberty)—the girls initiative is clear: helping more girls remain active, engaged, inspired, and connected through sport.
Research consistently identifies the ages between 12 and 15 as among the most vulnerable years for young female athletes. During this period, many girls leave organized sport due to social pressures, limited opportunities, financial barriers, lack of visible pathways, and the increasing demands of school and personal development. Not to mention the impact of social media influence and phone dependency.
The numbers shared during the Tromsø meetings underscore the urgency.
Beginning this fall at NTG Tromso, girls aged 12 to 15 in Tromsø will gain access to a dedicated academy environment designed specifically to support their athletic, academic, and personal development.
The initiative is inspired by the boys’ academy model first introduced in 2007 but has been intentionally designed to address challenges unique to young female athletes. Participants will receive weekly training sessions, individualized development plans, access to camps and tournaments, mentorship opportunities, and a seamless integration between school and sport.
The project will be led by former elite football player Sandra Nicolaisen Simonsen at NTG-U in Tromsø. Importantly, the academy will extend beyond NTG-U students and serve a broader community of young female athletes throughout the region.
Two-Years Devoted With No Stopping
For Louise Mohn, the initiative represents a united mission in elevating a positive focus within society for the sake of the next generation, especially young girls. Meteva Sport og Helse has spent the last two years working to develop the NextGen Neighbor Network and its I care. campaign to create visual branding around social responsibility that businesses, organizations, and sports clubs can adopt to enhance their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Their work also involved creating engaging and thought provoking content on how sports can be a vehicle for growth and development, along with how it can help address some of society’s most pressing challenges, including youth dropout, social isolation, physical inactivity, and the need for stronger community belonging among youth.
Simultaneously, Louise partnered with NTG to launch the NTG I care. Scholarship which is designed for young people who demonstrate high social capital, contribute to their local community, along with having a capacity to care for others regardless of their background, parental involvement, or personal challenge Initially, the scholarship program will run for three years with full financial support from Louise Mohn and her companies, and in part has provided allocated funding for the NTG Tromsø Girls’ Academy (Jenteakademiet). The more contributors, the more girls are impacted, creating a domino effect of social responsibility.
“This is a collaborative call to action and necessity to encourage stakeholders to see beyond their own interests and rather see the greater good for the next generation,” says Louise Mohn, Founder of Meteva Sport og Helse and The NextGen Neighbor Network
NTG Tromsø: Leading The Way
Leaders at NTG Tromsø have long recognized the disparity between opportunities available to boys and girls. Their student population is roughly 50/50 boys and girls. Yet the girls see that the boys have entirely different opportunities to compete and advance. NTG Tromsø is actively focused on making a change. Historically, girls in Northern Norway have faced a number of barriers, including fewer competition opportunities, limited coaching resources, fragmented development environments, and geographical challenges that make elite-level participation difficult.
The new NTG Tromsø girls initiative seeks to create a more comprehensive pathway that allows talented young athletes to remain in Northern Norway while pursuing ambitious goals. Although football serves as the foundation, the girls initiative’s vision extends far beyond athletic performance. The program places equal emphasis on mental health, emotional well-being, social development, resilience, self-confidence, values-based education, and long-term personal growth. The involvement of experts such as Professor Svein Arne Pettersen and the research that has already been done on girls in sports is crucial and needs to be reinforced because it is being undermined in today’s society.
A City & Mayor That Cares
For Mayor Gunnar Wilhelmsen, social responsibility has been a top priority throughout his nearly eight years in public office. As a business leader and entrepreneur at the investment company Triko, he has demonstrated a strong commitment to the local community and beyond through a variety of initiatives and contributions.
These efforts include providing premises free of charge to the Municipality of Tromsø for walk-in COVID-19 testing during the pandemic through his real estate company and serving as a strong partner of Tromsø Idrettslag (TIL), based on the belief that football and sport are important tools for preventing social exclusion. Wilhelmsen has also supported the U16 initiative, an interdisciplinary collaboration focused on preventing and reducing social exclusion, substance abuse, and criminal behavior among children and young people aged 10–16. U16 works closely with schools, families, and leisure-time organizations to provide a comprehensive and coordinated support system for at-risk youth.
Mayor Gunnar Wilhelmsen has expressed his support for the NTG Tromsø Girls initiative and their partnership with Louise Mohn.
What begins in Tromsø this fall could potentially become a national model if more people see the value both for Corporate and collective social responsibility within every city in Norway. When the vision succeeds, this girl's initiative is part of a bigger picture where a sustainable value chain is built, nurtured and manifested with sport and role models as vehicles for growth, development and belonging for the next generation. The true legacy of this girl's initiative will be proven when the sustainable value chain within the local society proves to be the new trending catalyst within the sponsor market.
