Improving Access to Mainstream Sports for Persons with Intellectual Disabilities

Background TEAM UP! - Improving Access to Mainstream Sports for Persons with Intellectual Disabilities - is a 2 years project developed by 5 partners from Belgium, Romania, Spain, Greece and Croatia, and gathers services providers, academia and EU network active in the field of social inclusion. Sport is known to have a good impact on health. But sport activivities are often not accessible for everyone, especially for persons with intellectual disabilities (PWID). Objectives The main objective of TEAM UP! is to facilitate inclusion of PWID into mainstream sport activities and structures. It will do so by the development of cooperation mechanism among sport stakeholder (sports associations, public authorities, service providers, parents and families) so to create the right conditions to set-up inclusive sports community at local level. Implementation In order to allow a full inclusion of PWID in mainstream sport structures, TEAM UP! implemented the following activities:-Development of a tool for community mapping at local level to facilitate legal frameworks for inclusion-Development of an online training course for sport professionals and coaches-Creation of a community of practices at national level to link PWID and persons without disability to do sports activities together Achievements During the timeframe of the project, the consortium managed to produce the planned outputs in due time:-The Community Mapping Tool: an instrument to assess local community’s strengths, weaknesses and needs in inclusive sports.-The Training Course: an online training pack for sports professionals to support the creation of an inclusive sports environment.-Roadmap for Community of Practice: a set of guidelines to raise awareness and to create the needed context for inclusive sports.