Let's fit healthy lifestyle! The role of sport in regenerating deprived areas

Background With the realization of the project “Let's fit healthy life! The role of sport in regenerating deprived areas”, attention was paid to the importance of sports for the psycho-physical well-being of hu-mans, as a vehicle of conveying values such as solidarity, participation and inclusion, and as an added value for the enhancement of deprived areas. It’s an innovative way to promote healthy lifestyles through sports activities such as walking, fitwalking or power walking, in natural envi-ronments. Objectives - To promote a more active lifestyle through sports, in particular fitwalking;- To stimulate EU public authorities to undertake actions associated with sports and health in local policies regarding the development of marginal areas in Europe;- To raise the community’s awareness of the value of sports and physical activity;- To establish a sustainable transnational network of Fitwalking skills in Europe, with the aim of ex-changing good practices and experiences. Implementation The activities of the project were executed in three phases developed by the 6 partner countries involved (Italy, Latvia, Portugal, Greece, Spain, Estonia): 1. Analysis of local needs in the six Countries involved, collection and sharing of best practices; 2. Laboratories, Practical sport exchanges, Participatory actions, exchange of experiences in teaching module; 3. Encouraging participation in Fitwalking sport and create common guidelines; realization of a final multiplier sport event. Achievements Six deprived, natural European areas were involved in the project; a report concerning local needs was produced; 66 participatory actions were carried out, with over 2300 participants; common guidelines about the benefit of fitwalking were created; a multiplier sport event of fitwalking was held in Ceresole (IT) with over 250 participants; about 174 satisfaction questionnaires were collected during the participatory actions.