Fair Play and Happiness through Sports

The overall aim of FAIRHAP project was to support and provide awareness to those who teach sports to children, about basic Olympic values, through innovative educational approaches, in order to recognize and instil those values and joy, through sports, to children aged 10-12 year old. More specifically, the project aimed to improve the understanding of Olympic fundamental values and their importance and the ability to apply and promote these concepts in all aspects of children’s lives, to give the opportunity to children through the participation in team sports, to increase their cognitive, emotional, and psychomotor activity, and to promote their self-awareness, sense of interdependence, cooperation and collegiality. Moreover, it aimed to change the attitude of sport organizations and institutions not to focus in competition but in sports for all and, finally, to mobilize people who have direct involvement in sports, education, in order to broaden their minds through the gained knowledge about the importance of the promotion of the Olympic values. These aims were achieved mainly through the design, creation and administration of an innovative educational material for the sport educators and coaches that were trained through this project, in order to help them teach the children 10-12 years old about the principles of the FAIRHAP Project, which emphasized on teaching methodologies combining humanistic values with technical skills at team sports. This was based largely on the results of research, including a review of the current status of awareness and sports policies about the FAIRHAP principles, which provided the necessary insight into the issues concerning the teaching of Olympic values in all partner countries. Also, the project aims were achieved through the organisation and implementation of specially formulated training sessions for children based on the educational material produced, which led to a report based on the results of a survey done before and after the trainings, in order to assess the impact of the implemented interventions, as well as open tournaments for the participating children to showcase the benefits of the intervention. Finally, through the dissemination activities and especially through the discussions during the validation workshops as well as through the final conference, the active involvement of all the relevant stakeholders in the project (sport, P.E. teachers, etc.), through the field research and the training workshops that raised issues and thoughts for discussion.