WU - Welcome, Ukraine!

The project will build on a previous EFDN initiative, Welcome through Football, but with a specific focus on Ukrainian refugees. As right now the pressing crisis means that around 80% of all displaced people in Europe are Ukrainian. This new research will specifically test best practice in regards to the engagement and inclusion of Ukrainian refugees through football based social cohesion and personal development programmes, with the aim of proving which methodologies work best, to ensure these enormous, growing communities can be more physically and socially active in European communities. The project will bring together four community engaged football and sport clubs. Then it will utilise the learnings from a previous project, Welcome through Football, as well as methods from other football and sport based social cohesion and personal development programmes and methodologies for refugees, asylum seekers and people with a migrant background, to identify, share and test the best practices from each of these programmes to improve the quality and positively impact each programme. The project will then combine the best practices from various programmes into one common methodology that can be used as a specific, tried and tested, template for local delivery of such programmes for Ukrainian refugees all over Europe. A Welcome, Ukraine! Practitioners Guide will be developed, with “train the trainer” courses and ongoing online training throughout the project that are accessible for free and able to be widely used by interested organisations and sports clubs in Europe. Alongside this a resource library and other tools will be made freely available. This project will help reach, support, and inspire, a population that right now have a great need to be integrated into societies and communities across Europe. It will also create a cost effective, delivery friendly, scalable approach to integration that has the potential to transcend the realms of football. that is published through this page expresses the views of the project beneficiaries only and it does not represent the views of the European Union or the European Commission. It shall not be deemed to constitute legal or official notice on behalf of the European Union or the European Commission. Neither the European Union nor the European Commission can be held responsible for this content nor the use thereof made by any third parties. Page 2 of 2