BE INclusive throught sport and outdoor activities –BE-IN

The Special Eurobarometer on Sport and Physical Activity (2014) stated that 41% of all EU citizens do sport. But participation is unequally divided between social groups: men participate more than women, especially when it comes to organized sport and younger adults, and there is a strong correlation between income, social status and economic situation. These inequalities can be traced back to structural barriers and discriminatory surroundings, which prevent women, socially and economically marginalized groups, in particular minority groups (such as ethnic, religious, sexual or gender minorities) from active participation.
Despite knowing of the existence of the low sports participation by migrants or minorities inEuropean countries, there are no studies or research that allows us to correctly evaluate the present situation. It has also been made clear that the presence of migrants or ethnic minorities are almost completely absent in the roles of trainer, club managers, or positions in sport federations, even though many top athletes come from these communities.
Understanding this reality needs to be seen within the context of the larger reality of European societies, namely, the direct and indirect forms of exclusion to which migrant and ethnic minority communities are subject. Also, the degree of intolerance that is shown in the different European societies has created barriers to changing of the status quo in the social field of sport.

The overall vision of the project “ BE INclusive throught sport and outdoor activities –BE-IN” is to involve those who are at risk of social exclusion. This will be attempted by increasing sports participation of disadvantaged groups by promoting equal access to organized sport. A key objective is to increase volunteering of migrants and minorities through the establishment of equal partnerships and training of mainstream sport organizations.

Aim and Objectives

The project aims to promote social inclusion and equal opportunities in organised sport through volunteering of migrants and minorities and capacity-building in sport organisations.

In concrete, project objectives are:
• To strengthen the social inclusion of immigrants/ minorities groups by increasing the involvement and active participation of immigrants in mainstream sport.
• To promote dialogue between long-standing sport institutions, migrant sport organisations and national/local authorities in order to make full use of the potential integrative and intercultural power of different sports.
• To raise awareness about the problem of ethnic discrimination and racism in European sport and foster equal rights in sports.

Planned project activities:
1. Kick-off meeting with representatives from each partner (place to be decided)

2. Promotional materials realization (flyers, posters, banners, t-shrits, etc).

3. Project Website
Results, news as well as resources and documents to download will be published on the project website. This will be an important tool to be used in order ro raise awareness about the potential positive role of sport in terms of social inclusion of migrants/minorities groups and intercultural dialogue during project activities, as well as a method to disseminate project results/.

4. Train the Trainers Workshop
In Romania is going to be organized a five-days European workshop which trains five trainers of each partner organisation. This action’s programme is aimed at articulating theoretical approaches, promoting an exchange of experiences and a debate of ideas, as well as deepening practices and techniques of social inclusion, which had as its basis the kinetics and body dimensions of sports interaction. This approach, beyond the pedagogical and didactical aspects of its application, has as its goal the inclusion of the group itself in a friendlyenvironment. Historical-theoretical aspects of social inclusion and discrimination in Europe will be addressed, namely understanding the ways in which migrants and ethnic minorities in sport are excluded, as well as the theoretical-practical aspects of the bodily relationships inherent to social interaction in the recreational space of the game or in the field of sport practices.

5. Inclusion Workshops for Sport Clubs & Associations
Each partner has to organise two Inclusion Workshops in their own countries. One is targeting the key staff or members of the football association or a professional football club and the second a non-football sport association or club. As has been noted, the action to train the trainers aimes to give trainers information in order to lead or support their organisations in providing the action "Inclusion Workshops for Clubs & Associations" in their respective countries, in which one of the workshops should be for football and the other for other sports. In this way, positive initiatives of social inclusion in football could be transferred to other sports, since football is the most representative and popular sport in European countries and for this reason has the largest number of good practice examples.

6. Football Refugee Day
The UN World Refugee Day is celebrated on June 20th each year. This event honours the courage, strength and determination of women, men and children who are forced to flee their homeland under threat of persecution, conflict and violence. To mark the World Refugee Day all project partners will organise a public event with refugee/minorities sport teams. The action entitled "Football Refugee Day" planns to address the goals of the BE IN Project towards the refugees, asylum seekers and local minorities as part of its target group, since these communities are culturally diversified, tending to carry with them social stigmas and are littleaddressed in inclusion programmes of social intervention.
The action aims to highlight the World Refugee Day in Project partner countries, by creating a social place of interaction through sport competitions, and in this way contributing to the promotion and awareness-raising role of sport in inclusion and intercultural dialogue. These events will combine sport events attended by a large audience with awareness raising events (workshops, street activities, media campaigns, etc)

7. European Conference: Sport & Integration - Challenging social exclusion in and through sport (place to be decided)
This two-days event will bring together sport and integration experts and migrant activists to discuss with sport stakeholders and policy makers current challenges, exchange best practices and devise future priorities. The action emphasizes the knowledge, exchange experie means of inclusion and the prevention of social exclusion.

8. Good Practice Guide
The Good Practice Guide brochure will look at various stakeholders in project partner countries plus and will present the most promising good practice examples. It will be a tool for awareness raising and generating public support for the integration agenda among sport stakeholders. Based on the good practice examples quality criteria and concluding recommendations will be made.

9.Dissemination and valorization events aimed to spread the results in local communities, to increase the impact and exploitation of the results through a final conference.

9.Project evaluation meeting (venue to be established)
During two working day, 2 representatives from each partner organization will meet in order to analyse project activities and results, to plan future projects and evaluate.

Expected results
• Increase networking and sharing of best practices among European & national sport stakeholders how to pro-actively involve migrants & minorities in and through sport;
• Greater awareness and knowledge about appropriate methods among sport administrators how to counter the social exclusion of migrants in their associations or clubs ;
• Learning from football and transfer of knowledge to other sports on mainstreaming intercultural action and equal opportunities’ policies;
• Empower and capacity-build migrant football teams and initiatives including refugees and asylum seekers in order to participate in regular leagues and competitions;
• Increased capacities and competences of migrant lead and mainstream clubs to engage, support and train volunteers from migrant/ethnic minority backgrounds and increased competences of volunteers from migrant/ethnic minority backgrounds on how to volunteer with in clubs;
• Developed a framework to enhance local engagement pathways/networks forclubs, and volunteers from migrant/ethnic minority background and having bridged connectivity gaps between main stream clubs and migrant groups;
• Increased understanding and awareness of discriminatory practices and exclusionary discourses in sport among sport and football stakeholders;
• Enhanced transnational cooperation and exchange of good practice among marginalised groups, NGOs and sport stakeholders which leads to the establishment of a European network on social inclusion in sport;