Sport Together - Strenghthening Cross-Community Social Inclusion in Post-Conflict Regions

The overall objective of the “Sport Together” project is to strengthen social inclusion in divided communities with a focus on young people and girls and to increase participation of disadvantaged groups - in particularl refugees & newly-arrived migrants and minorities - in grass-roots sport through training, education, awareness-raising, capacity-building of sport stakeholders and cross-community youth sport interventions. The project will use sport to tackle cross-border threats to social cohesion. First, the ongoing ethno-political divisions in the Western Balkan & Ireland. Second, the continued challenges following the so called EU “refugee crisis”. The Work Programme encompasses the following Workstreams: 1. Building an Evidence Base & Identifying Good Practice 2. Educational Resources & Dissemination 3. Sport Inclusion Training & Education 4. Awareness, Campaigning & Networking 5. Coordination, Management & Communication Tangible outputs iwill nclude a Baseline Study Report (IO 1), Good Practice Guide (IO 2), Education Manual–Methods, Activities & Games for Youth Workshops (IO 3), Youth Online Toolkit (IO 4), Girl Power Video (IO 5), Handbook on Cross-Community Youth Sport Events (IO 6) and Communication Module & Stakeholder Engagement Platform (IO 7). Main events include a kick-off meeting in Belfast, a European Training Session for Multipliers in Belgrade in autumn 2021 followed by National Workshops in all seven partner countries, a Girls Football Festival in July 2022 in Vienna, inclusive grassroots events in the European Week of Sport 2022, a Networking Meeting in Sarajevo & a final cross-border Mini-Van Tour in 3 countries. Project partners are VIDC-fairplay (Austria) (coordinator), Football Association of Ireland (Ireland), Irish Football Association (Northern Ireland), Youth Initiative for Human Rights (BiH), NGO Atina (Serbia), University of Thessaly (Greece), Donegal Sports Partnership (Ireland) and FC Zagreb 041 (Croatia).