Promoting Social Inclusion and Active Ageing through a European Festival of Modified Games and Sports Activities for Seniors

The idea of this project was conceived by three organisations each from Ireland, Belgium and Italy. Our aim was that by sharing our ideas, experiences and ways of working with each other, all three organisations will bring back not only new sport activities but also new approaches to working with older people. This will promote greater participation of older people in sport and physical activity through innovative games modified to be more accessible and inclusive.Each partner developed a half day training workshop which was shared and delivered to all partners at a meeting in Dublin. Each partner demonstrated a game from their own country and produced a rule book to be shared, and the content to be used as part of a Euro Games Fest Rule Book which was developed at the end of the project. The games were Scidils from Ireland, Xboccia from Belgium and Swimming Resilience from Italy. Four people from each organisation spent two days demonstrating, sharing and discussing ideas and programmes from within their own culture and organisation.Each country tested the games with their own groups and the intention was to have one day where all three games were played by participants, at the same time, in each country and was broadcast live to each other. Unfortunately with the impact of Covid-19 we had to adjust our plan. Initially we held off , expecting that restrictions would lift but they didn’t, and were made more complicated as each country was at different stages of lockdown. With no other option we decided each country would run their own event within their local Covid-19 restrictions. Lunga Vita Attiva, Italy in collaboration with FINPLUS Trieste, organized the Festival in the Bruno Bianchi Swimming Pool in Trieste on 13th October 2020, in full respect of the anti Covid 19 procedures in force and before the closing of the swimming pool to the public. The event took place in the spirit of “Resilience 2020” and the pool was flooded with red balloons, to show the will to think positive and “stay up with life” to age in active style. All three games were played by their group, Scidils, Xboccia and Swimming Resilience . Ireland and Belgium were able to run separate on- line events that featured two of the games but could not feature the swim game from Italy, as swimming pools in each country were closed. The online events were run through zoom and teams and featured individuals playing the games , in their own homes and sharing their presence on screen while doing so, interacting with fellow players. The games had to be adapted to suit at home “equipment”. A total of 56 people took part in the games across the 3 countries during the month of October. At the end of the project a webinar was held in early December with participants and organisers from each country sharing their experience and enjoyment of taking part in the new activities which they can now share within their own groups. Each country produced separate rule books relating to their own game and a final Euro Games Fest Rule Book featuring all three games was developed and shared with all at the end of the project. This resource will enable groups to play the games by following the rules provided. Each participant completed an evaluation on the day of their event and all of the evaluations were collated onto one final report. It is hoped that in the future the games can be demonstrated in a face to face setting enabling older adult groups to increase the physical activity levels within their groups by introducing these new , inclusive and accessible sport activities.