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.” 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.
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.
Main Partner: CollegesWales (Inghilterra)
Partner: ISES, ŠPORTNO DRUŠTVO MEDIA ŠPORT (SLOVENIA), Município de Mirandela (PORTOGALLO), Klub Koszykówki Wilki Morskie (POLONIA), DEKUT (Ungheria), Bulgarian Sports Development Association, (BULGARIA)
If you need more information, please send us an e-mail: info@associazioneises.org