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Description
The Sports Nation - Pilot project aims to develop a working method for social inclusion through sports, for disadvantaged children in Romania and follow the children''s development during the project implementation.
Working with 50 children and 10 coaches that practice sports, will set a precedent and provide the necessary feedback and data to solving - in this phase of the project - two main problems.
The first problem is the lack of involvement of children from vulnerable groups (at risk, in the state child protection system, people affected by poverty, marginalization, single-parent families, Roma people at high risk, people affected by domestic violence) in extra-curricular activities, especially sports, meant to open their development horizons.
The second problem is the lack of updating and adaptation to the current circumstances of teaching methods, by young coaches who work in sports.
The aging system, lack of training and updating of knowledge, lack of familiarity with internationally developed academic method, intergenerational mentality - are some of the factors that lead to often inadequate and inefficient work of coaches with groups of children.
Sports Nation - Pilot addresses this two challenges by, firstly, creating a Training of Trainers curricula and organizing workshops for the coaches involved, and secondly, by receiving and analyzing data that helps following the development of underprivileged children that practice sports. This project aims at a gradual, systemic change in the way coaches approach and relate to social importance of their work in the community. In collaboration with our project partner, FURIM, a brochure containing the concepts, methodology and feedback obtained during this project will be launched. The brochure will ensure continuity in the development of future coaches, a tool that can be used in any sport to develop the civic, social and psychological values of coaches who will then instill these values to the children.
Summary of project results
The project tackled both the lack of involvement of children from vulnerable groups in extra-curricular activities, especially sports, and the lack of updating and adaptation to the current circumstances of teaching methods by young coaches who work in sports. The aging system, lack of training and updating of knowledge, lack of familiarity with internationally developed academic method, intergenerational mentality - are some of the factors that lead to often inadequate and inefficient work of coaches with groups of children.
The project started with the selection and meeting of the coaches involved in the project, in a workshop organized in collaboration with dr. Alina Gherghisan, sports psychologist within the Romanian Olympic and Sports Committee. This workshop was focused on working methodologies with children from disadvantaged backgrounds in sports teams. Emphasis was placed on the exchange of opinions and feedback between the coaches from the 3 sports disciplines (basketball, fencing and rugby), the better understanding of the psychological state of a child from a disadvantaged environment and signs that can indicate whether or not a child adapts to the sports and social environment in which it is engaged. After this workshop, the children''s selection campaign was started, by having meetings with all the affiliated clubs and with the educational units near them. The selection of children from the project took place over several months and taking into account the peculiarities and difficulties encountered in each of the communities the project reached.
During the monitoring period of the activities carried out by the coaches and children (the direct beneficiaries), improvements were observed in the degree of group cohesion, integration and cooperation of the children. Detailed analyzes of the collected data were carried out, in order to develop the Sports Nation - Pilot Brochure, which in the end was not finalised due to the poor implementation in the second part of the project.
Summary of bilateral results
The partner FURIM Institutt contributed with know-how on the concept of social innovation through sport and made useful interventions to the participants in the two modules of the workshops with coaches.