Swim to Live 3

With this project we have addressed the topic of social inclusion and equal opportunities in sport.We offered already active seniors (50+) free of charge swimming, mindfulness and dry land training for 6 months. Once a week swimming and once a week dryland and mindfulness training for a healthy body and mind. Before we began with the classes we educated our instructors with a one month mindfulness webinar workshop from a renowned expert in this field.Combined with the regular practice we organised 4 transnational meetings in the three partner countries, each dealing with a special topic. The first was held in Slovenia and the focus was to teach all of the project staff mindfulness and to plan final details of the project (dates of the meetings, dryland and water training plans). The second meeting was held in Romania and it was the time when all of the seniors in the project met each other and the team, did some team building activities and were taught mindfulness and listened to a lecture on physical therapy. The third meeting was held in Italy and the focus was on kinesiology and swimming. The final meeting was held in Slovenia, where the focus was on the final evaluation of the project.We have raised awareness on the importance of regular physical activity especially in seniors and promoted that awareness. The main goal was to spread the motivation for an active lifestyle from one senior (50+) European citizen to another. With this project we wanted to increase an active lifestyle, but also social inclusion through sport: people can join an established collective of like-minded people. We promoted equal opportunities in sport in general, anyone could join, no matter how healthy or sick, how able or disable, how young or old, male or female. Our participants were from underprivileged areas. Also one was blind and 2 were previously psychiatric patients with mental health issues. Besides an improved physical wellbeing a healthier way of life resulted in a better self image, a more positive outlook on life, they made new friends and improved social skills. Our active participants told their life stories about how to stay active after 50 and shared their experiences in short video clips which we published on Youtube and promoted via Facebook and our web portal. Participants shared a short presentation or a speech locally about how they are keeping an active lifestyle after 50. We have reached a snowball effect: the ones who are already active are those who can influence their peers the most. Our seniors have become ambassadors for an active lifestyle to their peers. Each organisation organised three Open house days in their country and the seniors invited their peers, friends, colleagues, coworkers, family members ect. to their training session (swimming, mindfulness or gym). All of them enjoyed themselves a lot and some of them have subsequently even signed up for swimming practice. While many people accept the health benefits of exercise, this acceptance does not always equate to regular involvement. For example, Ory et all. (2003) noted that 98 percent of adults over the age of 50 recognise the importance of physical activity to maintaining health, yet only a small minority of these adults meet the minimum daily physical activity recommendations, as participation in sport and physical activity tends to decrease with age. This gap between what people know to be important and their actual health behaviours remains a critical concern that we tackled with this project. Our seniors not only stayed involved throughout the whole project, but wished to continue with the activities after the project has ended. That is why we have opened new groups for mindfulness and dryland training for the interested swimmers in our sports club and our partners have kept (payable) swimming practices for their participants.