Rugby INC

According to data from Rugby Europe, in 2014 there was a total of 3,281,987 Rugby players spread all over 40 European countries (approximately 53% of all the players of World Rugby universe), of which just 1,088,654 were registered in the Nationals Federations.

In a sport with a worldwide emerging development and visibility, proved by the global television audience of 120 million viewers of the last Rugby World Cup final match, and by the debut of Rugby sevens at the 2016 Summer Olympics (Rio de Janeiro), it´s paradigmatic that in Europe, the practice of the game is predominant at a grassroots level.

In this domain, schools, amateur clubs and non governamental organizations, have a vital paper in the dissemination of Rugby, ensuring the engagement to this modality of thousands of new players year after year, especially under the program of World Rugby - Get into Rugby.

Not forgetting the generic health benefits associated with the practice of sports, Rugby, by it nature, code of ethics and values, can provide a field of outstanding educational activities, especially in the area of social interaction and civic education, giving opportunities to all the players, regardless of the physical structure and capabilities of each one.

But all over the Europe, not only the dimension of Education through sport have been explored and tested, but also it’s relatively common to identify in different projects and programes the connexion of Rugby with cross-sectorial themes linked to Social Inclusion and Equal Opportunities.

Since the development of inclusive approaches for young people with fewer opportunities, passing by the the creation of strategies for women's empowerment, until the searching of employment solutions for youths in NEEF situations, these are some examples that validate the idea that the tradicional social field of Rugby is growing, as a solide and innovate response to old and new social and economic threats and challenges of European society.

However at a European level, there isn´t a platform that unifies this initiatives, ensuring support and visibility to this kind of positive initiatives around Rugby, conditioning possible processes of sharing and learning about good practices.

The primary propose of the project “Rugby Inc” is to fill this gap, by creating a network of organizations, with experience and knowledge in the implementation of local projects targeting the promotion of social inclusion and equal opportunities through Rugby, giving them not only the opportunity to improve their own existent actions by the transfer of know-how, but also to reflect about possible new initiatives and interactions, in a framework of European cooperation between organizations.

These organizations have to been extremely motivated to contribute to a open-discussed partnership focused on bring results of positive social impacts from local communities to a transnational analysis agenda.