IDI4Sport - Inclusion and Disabilities in and through Sport
Raising awareness and training teachers and sports educators on disability through sport.
It's already been 12 months since the birth of this European project working towards sports and disabilities in the run-up to the 2024 Olympics! Here are some updates!
The project started with a meeting among partners in Thessaloniki, Greece, hosted by our partner responsible for the project's first phase:
- Conducting a study in each partner country to analyze policies favoring the integration of youth with disabilities into sports;
- Supported by good exemplary experiences.
These reports have been worked on collectively, and the final version is presented to you in the "Reports and Deliverables" section below. Feel free to take a look!
In parallel to this work, we produce biannual newsletters that we distribute within our networks. They showcase the various stages of the project and its progress:
Context of the IDI4Sport project
The low sports participation among youth with disabilities in schools or sports clubs is a complex and multifaceted problem. This situation affects all EU countries, whether they have recently implemented improvement measures or not. The need for a collective and coherent transnational response has been recognized, especially by the European Commission's 2021-2030 Strategy on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which calls for the cooperation of EU member states to exchange best practices and learn from each other in the fields of education and sports.
The European project IDI4Sport, "Inclusion and Disability in and through Sport," aims to promote sports participation for children with disabilities, with the backdrop of the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games (Olympics). It is designed to promote social inclusion, increase the participation of 10 to 20-year-old children with disabilities in sports activities within schools and outside of schools, and reduce the difficulties they face. It also aims to create inclusive environments that promote equity and equality. It targets teachers, sports educators, students, and young people both within and outside schools.
Objectives
The project aims to:
- Assist the formal and non-formal sectors in working together and promote collaboration between schools, youth workers, healthcare professionals, and sports organizations;
- Increase sports participation for adults and young people and improve their health and well-being ;
- Enhance the accessibility and attractiveness of health facilities for young people;
- Make young people aware that sports can promote teamwork, intercultural learning, and a sense of responsibility;
- Foster a common sense of belonging to the European Union among young people.
All project results will be regularly communicated to the European Commission to support actions in favor of sports participation for young people with disabilities.
Special attention will be given to the development of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in each European country and the development strategy of EU sports ministries. One of the objectives is to work on the legacy of the Olympic and Paralympic Games and its long-term dissemination. The fact that the Olympics and Paralympics will take place simultaneously in 2024 for the first time in history will help spread the project.
Project activities
The main idea of the project is to observe and compare, at the European level, sports participation for young people with disabilities and the practical adaptations in place. The best experiences will be modeled to create a tailored training program aimed at raising awareness and providing training to teachers and sports educators. The project will bring together actors from formal and non-formal education: teachers within schools, sports educators, sports clubs, and associations. European qualitative and quantitative indicators will be created to assess accessibility and the development of sports participation among young people.
In addition, students will be made aware of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, which serve as the backdrop for the project. Young people will work in the classroom, in physical education classes, in their sports clubs outside of school, and through the implementation of original activities related to the Games:
- A "relay race" involving all young participants: The project starts on January 1, 2023, and there will be approximately 500 days until the 2024 Olympics, during which young people will run in segments until the marathon deadline. The kilometers will be added up to reach 500 kilometers, corresponding to the 500 days leading up to the marathon.;
- This achievement will be identified with a "Generation 2030" label, created as part of the project. It will valorize the sports participation of young people within the project and contribute to the legacy of the Games.
Reports and deliverables
Work Package No. 2 - Resources and Modeling
Reports have been produced in each of the countries on national resources and existing best practices in sports and the inclusion of people with disabilities:
Based on these reports, a database has been created to have an overview of the expertise in each country.
To help you in your search, the good practice reports produced by each country are presented in a dynamic database, filtered according to the following 5 criteria: country, sport, disability, education and stakeholder involvement.
These data were then collected to create a training program that will be implemented during the experimentation phase scheduled for spring 2024. It will be tested with teachers and sports coaches for 10 to 20-year-old students in selected schools and sports clubs.
Work Package No. 3 - Experimentation
The next phase of the project, which begins in January 2024, is experimentation, which involves:
- The protocol defines the parameters to optimize the success of each phase of the experimentation, covering participant recruitment, teacher, and sports educator training, as well as its implementation in schools and sports clubs. This document is integrated into the training program and evaluation, with the possibility of adaptation to various facilities and the national specificities of each country. It is already among the finalized deliverables of the project and constitutes the final step before the implementation of experimentation with teachers.
- Training teachers and sports coaches. Several training sessions will be organized in each partner country.
- Implementation of activities in participating schools and sports clubs. Several activities will be conducted with students related to the 2024 Paris Olympics and Paralympics, including the "relay race" for all participants.
The deliverables will be regularly uploaded throughout the project.
Project Partners:
The partnership includes five EU countries and North Macedonia, an associated country to the Erasmus+ program.
- France Education international (FEI), France, Project Coordinator
- The Portuguese Institute of Sport and Youth (IPDJ), Portugal
- University of Macedonia (UoM), Greece
- The Olympic Committee of North Macedonia (OCNM), North Macedonia
- The International Sport and Culture Association (ISCA), Denmark
- The ish Institute "España se Mueve" (IEsM), Spain
- The National Higher Institute for Training and Research for Inclusive Education (INSEI), France.
The project also benefits from the support of several Olympic and Paralympic athletes, the Paralympic Committee of Greece, the Spanish High Council of Sports, the Private Institution of Social Solidarity of Portugal (APCAS), and Mr. Thierry Terret, former rector, ministerial delegate for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, and currently vice-rector of French Polynesia.
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.