NEWS AND EVENTS
PROJECT MEETINGS AND CONFERENCES Budapest 10 January – 12 January 2017
Cardiff 3 April – 7 April 2017
Alessandria – September 2018 | YSDA MOBILITY DATES
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The Youth Sport Development Ambassadors (YSDA) Project is a project that will see 7 European countries work together to develop new opportunities for young volunteers to gain European experience in sports development. The project has recruited ambassadors from each country who will be fully trained as YSDAs. The great opportunity gives them the role to create and develop new physical activities for their peer groups in their countries. The project also looks to help tackle inactivity among ethnic minorities in their local communities. The YSDA project will encourage the young volunteers to develop these disengaged social groups through physical activities..
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This project has been funded with support from the European Commission
(ERA-COPART - G.A. 2016-2771/001-001 – ERASMUS+ SPORT).
This project product reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein
ABOUT THE PROJECT
Partners
CollegesWales / ColegauCymru (Wales) - Project Coordinator:
CollegesWales /ColegauCymru is the national organisation that represents all of the Further Education (FE) colleges and institutions in Wales. It is a charitable company limited by guarantee, incorporated and registered as a charity on 16 January 1997. The charity operates on a self-funding basis through subscriptions from its members; all of the FE colleges in Wales (15 in total) are in membership.
Through CollegesWales, colleges are represented on various committees, working parties and other Wales and/or UK-wide groups that influence and shape policy in post-16 education/training and life-long learning. There is a board of directors, comprising of FE college principals and chairs that ensures the financial viability of CollegesWales and provides strategic direction.
CollegesWales‘ offices are based in Tongwynlais, Cardiff, where nine core staff members are based. In addition, a team of consultants is employed to assist CollegesWales in the delivery of its services and to manage specific projects appropriate to the FE sector in Wales.
CollegesWales is the lead organisation for promoting sport in FE in Wales. In partnership with Sport Wales, the national governing body for sport, the objective is to engage more young people in colleges in sport and physical activity. Colleges are supported in development planning for sport and physical activity via networks managed by CollegesWales.
The projects specifically involve tackling inequalities in young people participating in sport and also increasing the volunteering workforce. To increase capacity for delivery, colleges are providing opportunities for students to develop their skills and experience as volunteers and work on student management teams for sport. These teams are closely linked to the successful Young Ambassadors programme managed by Sport Wales which focuses on increasing opportunities in schools and communities.
Športno Društvo Media Šport (Slovenia) – Partner:
Media Sport is a non-profit NGO with a long record of achievement in the field of sports for young people. Its key activities are carried out within six projects: ''RAD IGRAM NOGOMET'' (I love to Play Football), ''ŠPORT IN ŠPAS'' (Sports and fun), ŽOGARIJA (Chasin‘ the ball), ''MIGAJ RAJE Z NAMI'' (Work out with us), ''MULČKI'' (Kiddies) and ''PISMO SRCA'' (A Letter from the Heart). We are primarily active in promotion of physical activity, inclusion of vulnerable groups and equal opportunities. We work closely with the Slovenian Football Association, the Olympic Committee and the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport. Our most successful project is 'Žogarija', which in the last ten years, spontaneously expanded to an international level and currently includes 9 European countries - Slovenia, Italy, Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia. The project was awarded twice for best grassroots project by UEFA. Over 10.000 children participate in the activities, organized by Media Sport. The experienced staff of the organisation includes 2 full-time employees and 120 members, with numerous volunteers assisting in each event (athletes, coaches, teachers...)
All of the projects, listed above are active in the field of sports for young people and are designed to increase physical activity among young people. ''I LOVE TO PLAY FOOTBALL'' is a joint project with the Football Association of Slovenija, aimed to encouraging children to play football. In addition to other activities within the project, we cooperate with Slovenian football clubs to present a promising young football player in a TV show. ''CHASIN‘ THE BALL'' is a project in cooperation with primary schools and Football Association of Slovenia to encourage children‘s sport participation by organising junior sport tournaments in Slovenia, Croatia, Italy, Austria, Hungary, Bosnia, Montenegro and Serbia.
Município de Mirandela (Portugal) – Partner:
Our organization is a dynamic Municipality with lots of sport activities; this dynamic makes our County a reference in sports in the Northeast of Portugal. Since 1996, our City hosts annually National and International events like the European Jet Ski Championship. The unique conditions of our river make this medium size City, calm and beautiful place, one of the most highly regarded and prestigious places to compete at international level in this sport. Our City is known at international level as the Jet Ski Capital of Europe. We also host international Kickboxing events annually since late 80‘s and we have World Champions in this sport that live and practice in our City. We proudly have the oldest sports club in our region and our sports movement exists since the beginning of the 20th century. We have several athletes who had represented the National Teams in sports such as Football, Basketball, Table Tennis, Kickboxing, Field Hockey, Athletics, Chess and Adapted Sports. Our Municipality frequently works with 26 sport organizations such as National Federations, Regional Associations and Local Clubs. We have 18 different sports and 869 official athletes signed in the National Federations.
Istituto Europeo per lo Sviluppo Socio Economico – ISES (ITALY) – Partner:
ISES was founded in 2008 as a non-profit organization to spread European culture in Italy and to get closer public agencies, businesses and the third sector to the EU institutions through the development of funded projects following their whole bureaucratic, administrative and managerial path in accordance with the rules laid down by the European Commission. Since its creation, ISES has worked in projects dealing with health and sports promotion. In particular since 2009, ISES has been cooperating with different associations for sports promotion such as UISP Alessandria (Unione Italiana Sport per Tutti), AICS (Associazione italiana cultura e sport) and since 2014 with CONI (Comitato Olimpico Nazionale Italiano) to implement projects at regional and national level. ISES has a long experience in managing EU projects by leading communication and dissemination activities. It has been responsible for the communication in all its projects developing the project communication strategy, tools and materials.
Klub Koszykówki Wilki Morskie (Poland) – Partner:
Basketball Club "Sea Wolves" is a club established after many transformations on the basis of the most distinguished for Szczecin basketball ―Sea Sports Club Pogoń Szczecin (the name of the Sea Wolves was given by the fans). The club debuted in nationwide game II league in 1966. After many changes, the current shape and form were achieved in 2004. Our club is focused on continuous developmentas we are constantly seeking new opportunities and prospects. We are involved in many initiatives and activities to promote basketball among the young, old and people with disabilities. Our willingness to act translates into motivation and dedication which allows us to perform our tasks. As promoters of basketball we are trying to look more broadly at the wonderful field of sport which we sacrifice for. During our twelve years history over 12.000 young people participated in the activities, organised or coordinated by the association. The experienced staff of the association includes four full-time employes, 300 members, 15 coaches/trainers and over 500 volunteers helping in our events. We take care of sports classes in Primary and Junior High Schools. Through our actions we contribute actively in practising basketball by people with phisical disabilities and social barriers (also immigrants). We are in the process of creating the section of basketball in whealchairs. We want to train future trainers and instructors, so that future generations can continue our basketball heritage and actively participate in shaping the basketball and spread this beautiful sport throughout the country. Every day our members participate in youth teams competitions, such as the Polish Championships and competitions of the European Youth Basketball League. We organized numerous trips to camps, social events of national and international level and we also took part in international exchanges with clubs from all over Europe.
DEKUT Debreceni Kutatásfejlesztési Nonprofit Kft (Hungary) – Partner:
Dekut NPO is a non-profit research centre, working for the economic development of the North Great Plain Region for over 10 years. Dekut is also a mediator organization with an aim of strengthening the relationships between business actors of the North Great Plain Region. This includes promoting business cooperation among companies within IT industry and also acting as a bridging organization between for-profit companies and non-profit organizations (such as educational, research, and other public institutions). We do not work alone and isolated, our cooperation with other regional and national organizations guarantee that our activities are an integral part of the region‘s organized development. Dekut has been participating in international projects since 2007. These multipartnership projects are partly funded by grants awarded by the European Union. We make sure that regional organizations benefit from the results of the projects. By participating in different programs and disseminating information we contribute to maintaining and improving the health of populations. We participate in actions aimed at the following: building healthy public policy, creating supportive environments, strengthening community action, developing personal skills, and reorienting health services. Dekut works in cooperation with several other organizations and knowledge centers as well as several dozen regional SMEs and large companies. The organisation participates in several projects that contribute to the realization of action plans and programs aimed at creating a healthy society. Dekut supports the development of the Észak-alföld region. The organisation participates in several projects that contribute to the realization of action plans and programs aimed at creating a healthy society.
Bulgarian Sports Development Association (Bulgaria) – Partner:
Bulgarian Sports Development Association was founded in 2010 and is a nonprofit public benefit organization devoted to the development of Bulgarian sport and improving sporting culture in Bulgaria. Our team is young, creative and full of innovative spirit that works for development of Bulgarian sport and enhances the sport culture in Bulgaria with a desire and motivation. BSDA membership is voluntary and the association involve both physical and legal persons who are willing to contribute to the development of sport with time, ideas, effort or financial support. We also organize different events in the areas of: entrepreneurship, citizenship and active society. The team of the organization consists of professionals from different fields as: sport experts, media specialists, tourism and hospitality, education, marketing and others. We believe that sport should be a part of a modern life of children and young people and should inspire values such as motivation, discipline and fair play. Sport is also an excellent way to prevent many of the problems with young people such as social exclusion, violence, crime and addictions.
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Aims
This 2 year project will focus on peer led voluntary action in sport to promote social inclusion in sport for young people aged between 16 and 24. The focus will be on developing Youth Sport Development Ambassadors (YSDAs) to develop projects with groups of young people from ethnic minority and migrant populations.
At an EU level the need to develop sport for social inclusion and migrant populations is seen as a priority,
Social inclusion is among the EU's priorities for the role of sport in society.
“By bringing people together, building communities and fighting attitudes of xenophobia and racism, sport has the potential to make an important contribution to the integration of migrants in the EU.” EC website 2015
The challenge facing young people from ethnic minority and migrant populations is that, in addition to the more general social barriers, they can also face further barriers to participating in recreational sport. There have been numerous studies and projects at an EU level highlighting inequality issues in the governance of sport and also high profile campaigns in football, in particular tackling racism. The issue of participation is sometimes less obviously addressed but is clearly an emerging issue for these communities as highlighted by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA):-
“Widening participation in sports - in many sports across the European Union, minorities and migrants are underrepresented,particularly in the management positions of sport organisations. Women and girls with a minority or migrant background are particularly underrepresented. In some countries, social exclusion and geographical isolation can lead to low participation levels of Roma and Travellers in sport. Unavailability of sports facilities in certain areas also reduces participation levels of some groups. “ www.fra.europa.eu
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Target groups
The YSDA project will target minority populations in the seven partner countries through youth-led,
multilingual projects, using peer-led voluntary action. The objective of this work will aim to engage with young people using sport and physical activity, developed specifically for their social and ethnic groups. Micro projects within each partner country will be adaptable to the ethnic groups identified within each country with the YSDA also being identified from similar ethnic backgrounds. Due to the diverse range of ethnic groups involved in the project, common themes will be used for research purposes – participation, project completion, participant satisfaction and the creation of new opportunities for participants.
Minority groups have been selected in each partner country in advance of the project start date:
| Wales (UK) | Multiple groups linked to Muslim, African and Eastern European groups in 4 regional cities |
| Italy | Muslim and migrant populations |
| Slovenia | Migrants from countries within the former Yugoslavia displaced by conflict |
| Poland | Migrants from Ukraine |
| Portugal | African migrants |
| Bulgaria | Turkish and Pomak minority groups |
| Hungary | Roma populations |
Benefits
The use of young people in the role of YSDAs to specifically research, develop and deliver activities for their peers provides an innovative and sustainable solution for the future delivery of grassroots sport. This experience is born out of the success at a local level of using young people as sports ambassadors in Wales to develop actitivity for their peers.
The project will provide opportunities for young people to develop their sports development skills in a voluntary setting using innovative ways to engage their peer groups. A key innovative aspect of this programme is that the YSDAs will have a development, implementation and planning role rather than purely a delivery role. They will have the responsibility of leading the training for their fellow YSDAs at the start of the project.
The project will embrace the ability of the young people to share experiences and communicate via mobile technology. Rather than looking at the use of a mobile phone as a negative factor this project will actively encourage YSDA’s and peers to report directly from activity using the YSDA APP that will be used as an Open Educational Resource (OER) and will promote the use of information and communications technology – ICT, connected to sport and physical activities in Europe.
There will be instantly available updates and project data available for research purposes with results being shared across 7 EU partner countries throughout the project. The creation of “instant information” from the project without the use of expensive media support will be a key innovation delivered by the young people.
A transnational project providing experiences of peer led interventions into voluntary action in sport providing YSDAs with opportunity to develop and learn from their EU counterparts. This experience will be shared within regional networks and EU sport networks throughout the project lifecycle.
Within the genuinely transnational nature of the project there will be a healthy range of organisations including sports clubs, education and youth sport organisations. There is also a balance of national, regional and municipal provision within the project.
Young people will have an input into the project at all stages from the first training conference through training of peers to support for project planning and delivery. At all stages of the project, they will also be encouraged to share these experiences via the range of tools provided.
LINKS
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Project organizations
CollegesWales / ColegauCymru: www.collegeswales.ac.uk
Športno Društvo Media Šport: www.mediasport.si
Município de Mirandela: www.cm-mirandela.pt
Istituto Europeo per lo Sviluppo Socio Economico – ISES: www.uisp.it/alessandria
Klub Koszykówki Wilki Morskie: www.wmsz.pl
DEKUT Debreceni Kutatásfejlesztési Nonprofit Kft: www.dekut.hu
Bulgarian Sports Development Association: www.bulsport.bg
European Union: www.europa.eu
Erasmus+: www.ec.europa.eu/programmes/erasmus-plus/node_en
Erasmus+ Sport: www.eacea.ec.europa.eu/erasmus-plus/actions/sport