Urban Sports as a tool to foster social inclusion of marginalised YOUth

CONTEXT:
Some of the key findings revealed that 46% of Europeans currently never exercise or partake in physical activity. The survey also unveiled that during the COVID-19 pandemic, half of Europeans reduced their activity levels or even stopped exercising altogether.
This is a continuation of a gradual trend since 2009. Overall, in the EU, men exercise, play sport or engage in other physical activity more than women. This disparity is particularly marked in the 15-24 age group, with young men tending to exercise or play sport on a regular basis considerably more than young women.
Engagement in sport and physical activity is also less prevalent among people with lower levels of education and those with financial difficulties.
The proportion of people who play sport regularly is highest in Finland (69%), Sweden (67%) and Denmark (63%). Respondents are least likely to play sport in Bulgaria, Greece and Portugal (in each of these countries, 68% never exercise or play sport).There are several countries where respondents are much less likely to engage in sport than in the 2013 Eurobarometer survey: Croatia, Latvia, Austria and Estonia. Levels of engagement have increased in Malta, Bulgaria and Cyprus.
The most common reasons for engaging in sport or physical activity are to improve health (54%) and fitness (47%). Other popular reasons are: relaxing (38%), having fun (30%) and improving physical performance (28%). A lack of time is the main reason given for not regularly practising sport (40%).
Among people living in the EU, 19.5 % of nationals, 27.5 % of citizens of other EU Member States and 48.4 % of non-EU citizens living in the EU faced the risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2021. The risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2021 was almost twice as high for foreign-born persons (36.1 %) as it was for native-born persons (19.0 %) and was particularly concentrated among those born outside of the EU (41.0 %). Researchs conducted shows that approximately 64% of the socially marginalized population in Europe has too much weight over 47% on national average. Moreover, around 30% were suffering from obesity, over 10% obesity on a national scale. By participating in the SIG2018, the target groups were introduced to sports as a mean for rehabilitation. This will lead to equal access to sports for all and an enhanced level of social inclusion across the participating regions/countries
Marginalised and underprivileged groups such as migrants and people at risk of discrimination for example, have the opportunity to interact and integrate with other social groups through sport. Sport also provides people living with a disability an opportunity to increase their participation in society, showcase their talents and challenge stereotypes. The social benefits of sport do not always achieve their full potential. Many groups of marginalised people are under-represented amongst sporting professionals, volunteers, and membership of committees and governing bodies. This occurs at all levels, whether local, national, or European.
Sport can represent a good factor for the inclusion of socially disadvantaged groups, marginalised people and people at risk of discrimination. Sport can be a truly powerful educational tool and a complement to what is done at the institutional level in promoting various values such as tolerance, solidarity, cooperation, and an intercultural vision of our societies. By bringing people, who do not usually interact, to know each other, to speak, to share a sense of belonging, sport can be really useful. It allows this people coming from different segments of the population to go over hate speeches they could hear around them and thus combat any form of prejudice, racism and xenophobia.
It is indeed essential in our societies to foster exchanges and dialogue between people because it is the path to prevent the rising of potential discriminatory practices and ease the inclusion of marginalized people. For this purpose, it is especially important to involve youth coming from different backgrounds to open them up to intercultural ideas in order for them to become the ambassadors of a message of tolerance. That is why sport’s potential as a training and inclusive social tool needs to be maximised to address the obstacles and life challenges these people are facing by carrying out empowering programs and intercultural dialogue-interventions.
Project creates a constructive dialogue between different groups of youth and professionals working in the field of Youth and Sport, driving a change towards an inclusive system by reinforcing the idea of sport as a tool for social inclusion and raising awareness of its potential.

Project aims to strengthen the role played by urban sport in social inclusion and cohesion policies within participating countries through the empowerment and providing new opportunities of integration for groups at risk of marginalisation
The main project objective will be achieved by pursuing the following specific objectives:
1. To support the ‘sport for all’ principle based on equal opportunities in participating countries improving both social inclusion in sport of socially disadvantaged groups and the role of sport to promote inclusion into society of disadvantaged group.
2. To promote equality between women and men in sport and through sport in the involved participating countries, including active measures against gender stereotyping.
3. To strengthen and make more effective the public local policies thanks to the exchange of strategies and methodologies for making better use of the potential of sport as a contribution to community building, social cohesion and inclusive growth.
4. To inform and train citizens from the involved countries on the positive effects of sport for health, for preventing and counteracting phenomena such as harmful dietary behaviours and for reducing health system costs.
5. To promote urban sports as an effective instrument of rehabilitation, reintegration and empowerment of socially marginalized people back at a national/local level.
6. To provide practical information on how to plan and implement awareness-raising events in the field of sport-based social inclusion interventions;
7. To offeri insights on how to train staff, manage volunteers, collaborate with other rganisations, and create broader inclusion within the community

TARGET GROUPS
A) Civil society, youth and voluntary organisations;
B) Leagues, federations, organisations, clubs and their staff members in the sport sector;
C) School educational staff;
D) Local authorities and policy-makers dealing with the organisation of sport events;
E) Media professionals and journalists dealing with sport.
The project targets in particular young people to increase the overall participation in sport and encourage physical activities within and outside the school context.

PLANNED ACTIVITIES
Main activities are been divided in 7 work packages (WP) and each had its specific outcomes.
1) WP1: Management and Coordination
(a) Project management activities, involving a thorough planning, monitoring, assessing and reporting project members' tasks, acquisitions and budgets, as well as fulfilling the legal and contractual provisions induced by project deployment. The results of these activities are:
- team members contracts of employment during the project;
- communication documents with team members regarding their tasks;
- list of tasks and their schedule;
- communication documents with suppliers of products and services needed in the project;
- approvals of budget expenses for acquisitions in the project;
- project final report.
- financial documents resulted from the project;
-legal documents resulted from the project activity, according to the national legislation and to the EU Erasmus+ Sport Programme requirements
(2) Project preparation activities, translating the planned actions and tasks into effective results. which are:
- Goods and services contracted for the implementation of the project
- Communication documents with participants from participating countries
- Communication documents and official approvals from local authorities for organizing the project events;
- The website of the project;
- The Facebook page of the project;
- The online platform used for gathering participants opinions about the issues related to our project objectives
- The before event lists of participants;
- The lists of volunteers.
- The list of tasks assigned to volunteers;
- Bulletins and updates about the events;
- Promotional and informative materials;
- The first kick-off organization.

2) WP2: Monitoring and Evaluation
- Regular monitoring actions will be put in place to assure the effectiveness of project’s activities
- The special regard will be given to the budget expenditure
- A time registration system for the staff members established and the methodology for collection, categorization and preservation of all documentation related to the eligible activities was developed
- Project activities regularly evaluated on group meetings

3) WP3: Collection of institutional policies within the participating countries
- All relevant legal policies, internal regulations and economic aspects related to the Project topic and goals will been collected and analysed.
- Report about relevant legal policies, internal regulations and economic aspects related to social inclusion and physical activities implemented in final manual.

4) WP4: Collection of best practices and context analyses
- Before intermediate meeting sending organizations gatheres according to possibilities, best practices related to social inclusion and physical activity
- Questionnaires elaborated and administrated to the members of participating organizations
- Final report which consists of result elaboration and identification of most suitable experiences has been made

5) WP5: Realization of the sport events (week of sport)
- Before the event itself, selection of participants and volunteers, as well as the organization of different sports events and other activities will been made
- The participants will be selected based on their field of expertise and their personal experience
- Sports events will be focused on urban sports (sports that are performed in city environments as opposed to prepared fields, such as: BMX, skateboarding, inline skating, parkour, street fit, 3 on 3 basketball, urban climbing, rollerblading, aerobatics, bicycling, urban golf etc -are youth subcultural activities that have increased appeal to young people not interested in mainstream sports)

6) WP6: Organization of international conference, round tables and workshops
- Selection of the participants, organizational activities and informing wider public
Workshops and seminars in connection with sports activities in participating countries with focus on the following subjects:
a) International seminar on themes such as: strategic communication, how to finance sports events in order to promote social inclusion, Effective and innovative recruitment, how to promote and implement events and arrangements.
b) Conference with participants from the civil, private and public sector in order to spread knowledge and share experiences on how to use sport as a way to promote social inclusion for people with disabilities. Activities in order how to identify ”best practices” as a foundation for increased cooperation between municipalities and associations to create awareness about the importance of sport as a tool for integration and inclusion.
c) Training course focused on the recruitment of children and young people in order to raise awareness among trainers and coaches about the importance of including marginalised children and young people in sport activities in order to foster social inclusion. Activities to increase knowledge about how to meet the needs of different target groups, customise training for children and young people and how to increase the public's knowledge and awareness of the importance of sport for socially excluded children and young people.

7) WP7: Communication and dissemination
- Project site created
- Promotional material produced (flyers, posters)
- Social media tools engaged
- Online communication with potential participants, media representatives, authorities;
- Main media (TV, newspapers,magazines) involved to guarantee the visibility of the project and to reach target groups
- Sending organizations spreading main news in their countries, mainly via web.

We are looking for sport partner organizations with experience with urban sports and social inclusion of young people. Interested organizations should send their PIF, by e-mail to office@modoflife.ro.