CoESport

Community and Sport for the promotion of healthy lifestyles and cohesive communities

Duration: 7 months (September 2024-March 2025)

Territory of intervention: The project has national value and takes place in 12 Regions and 20 cities

Applicant / Coordinator: UISP Aps/ AiCS Aps– Italian Culture Sport Association

Financing body: Sport e Salute S.p.A.

SUMMARY:

The need for the project arises from the need to ensure sports practice for children and adolescents aged between 5 and 16, who are not currently active in grassroots sports circuits, facilitating access to those belonging to vulnerable categories, most exposed to the risk of social isolation.

The project therefore aims to highlight the educational role of sport: thinking of sport as an educational environment and context means not focusing attention on the place from a technical-sporting point of view where physical activity is carried out but on sport as a "container" that can be set up with high flexibility and adaptability, which offers the individual opportunities for socialization, physical movement and individual development.

Bringing sport to the recipient represents the strong point of the project, as it allows the participating children and young people to carry out sporting activities within a familiar and safe environment; for this reason, in fact, the sports operators will be supported by the operators of the associations/centers hired, in order to build a working group in continuous collaboration to ensure at the same time that the sporting activities represent a recreational moment, paying attention to the individual needs of the participants. Access to sporting practice, in fact, means creating the necessary conditions to ensure that everyone can avail themselves of the same opportunities to participate in sporting activities.

OBJECTIVES:

• Introduce approximately 1200 minors between the ages of 5 and 16 to sports
• Spread physical activity and exercise as a tool for preventing psychosocial distress
• Promote and develop physical activity as a tool for inclusion and social cohesion.

PROJECT ACTIONS:

Specifically, the territories involved in the project deal with:

• Carry out multi-sports in the outdoor or indoor spaces of the associations/centers hired in the preparatory phase: 3 continuous months of sports activities for a total of 2 hours per week, for 2 courses, intended for 30 minors in each territorial area involved, through the Asd-/Ssd-multi-sports coordinated by the EPS. Participants can practice sports activities for a total of 24 hours for 3 continuous months.
  
• Organize the “community sports festival”, dedicated to sports for all for a total of about 80 national events, to be held in public places or at the spaces of the Asd-Ssd, associations and/or schools involved. The goal of the event is to promote inclusion and social cohesion through sports, involving athletes already registered with the Asd-Ssd-polisportive in an event open to the entire community, promoting recreational and physical activity in mixed teams. The benefits of holding “community sports festivals” are not limited to the project participants only, who through events organized by the territory can enjoy the experience of practicing sports together with their peers in an atmosphere that promotes equal opportunities and social inclusion through sport, but they are also an opportunity to develop active citizenship for children and young people already registered with Asd-Ssd-multi-sports clubs who can in this way support children who do not practice sports in carrying out the courses and activities practiced (acting as an “example” and playing an active role).
   

EXPECTED RESULTS:

• Approximately 1200 minors between the ages of 5 and 16 were involved and brought closer to sports practice
• Physical activity and exercise were spread as a tool for preventing psychosocial distress
• Physical activity was promoted and developed as a tool for inclusion and social cohesion.