Sport Together – Looking back on a successful journey

The Sport Together – Strengthening Cross-Community Social Inclusion in Post-Conflict Regions brought together eight partners from Europe with a focus on the two post-conflict regions Western Balkan and (Northern)-Ireland.

The Erasmus+ co-funded project can look back on a very successful and lively partnership, with impact on divided communities in the partner countries Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. The University of Thessaly in Greece worked on evidence base and published the Sport Together Baseline Study and Good Practice Guide.

The objective of the project was to strengthen social cohesion and inclusion in divided communities with a focus on young girls through sport participation and capacity-building of sport stakeholders. Receiving the evaluation results of the European Commission the objective was not only achieved, but will be sustainable in time thanks to outputs freely available on the project online toolkit.

Highlights of the project, next to study visits of the project team and selected trainers in Belfast (September 2023) and Sarajevo (April 2024), have been the international Training for Trainers  in Belgrade (October 2022), the production of the “Girls Power” video at the Girls Football Festival in Vienna (June 2023), the international Game Changers conference together with the Football Zajedno project in Sarajevo (March 2023) and the production of the handbook on cross-community work after the final activity, the Mini-Van Tour through Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, Croatia and Austria in May-June 2023.

According to the Europeans Commission evaluation the project furthermore was very relevant and innovative because of the focus on post-conflicts regions coupled with the focus on minorities, such as young women and newly arrived migrants, that aim at transforming the practice of sport in general. The results of the project exceeded the expectations, thanks to additional activities delivered by all partners and therefore maximising the impact of the project on the participating organisations. The project could potentially impact other sport professionals.

Awareness around the topic of social inclusion and cohesion through sport has been clearly raised within this project and this will hopefully create a positive impact in the future. The fairplay Initiative at VIDC would like to thank all project partners, trainers, volunteers, participants, clubs and other stakeholders and organisations involved over the almost last three years for the outstanding cooperation.

We hope to build up on the results and further develop and continue the partnerships and collaborations.

Contact
David Hudelist
hudelist [AT] vidc [DOT] org