YOUTH SPORT DEVELOPMENT AMBASSADORS (YSDA) PROJECT 2017

GOOD PRACTICE MANUAL TABLE OF CONTENTS

Disclaimer:

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

1. INTRODUCTION ______3

2. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ______4

3. YSDA PROJECT ______6

4. GOOD PRACTICE FROM THE YSDA PROJECT ______9

5. YSDA PROJECT BACKGROUND ______17

6. YSDA PROJECT IMPACT ______18

7. USEFUL LINKS ______20 INTRODUCTION

The Youth Sport Development Ambassadors (YSDA) Project is a project that involved 7 European countries working together to develop new opportunities for young volunteers to gain European experience in sports development. The project has recruited ambassadors from each country who were fully trained as YSDAs. This project gave them the role to create and develop new physical activities for their peer groups in their respective countries. The project also looked to help tackle inactivity among ethnic minorities in their local communities. The YSDA project encouraged the young volunteers to develop these disengaged social groups through physical activities.

This manual will present examples of the outputs of this project including good practice, impact of the project and experiences of the 7 European partner countries involved in the Implementation of the project. www.ysda.eu

https://www.facebook.com/YSDAProject

3 Executive Summary

The YSDA project was implemented successfully across a range of countries involving a very diverse range of partners and target groups. This has produced many examples of good practice that can be used to advise and guide future delivery at all levels from EU partnerships to local community groups. The impact on the YSDA ambassadors themselves has been significant, not only have they been a driving force in developing new activity and inspiring their peers, in many cases they have had their first experience of working with people from other EU Countries. Project research has recognised this as one of the most beneficial aspects of the project citing increases in skills, confidence and most importantly potential changes in mentality in their approach to working with the target groups. The organisations involved in the project have all faced challenges in what has been a very dynamic project involving lots of training, delivery and research on the ground. The diverse range of organisations and target groups involved has seen new opportunities being created and in many cases new routes into local clubs and facilities for the participants involved. This has seen changes in cultural perceptions in some areas and also removal of barriers that previously prevented participation. The participants in the project at a local level now have new experiences in sport and physical activity in their local community. Over 3,300 people took part in a YSDA project activity in one of 225+ activities and events developed by the project. A bespoke approach to planning resulted in 39 different types of activity being used, a true reflection for the need to be creative in offering activity to hard to reach groups. Most importantly the participants enjoyed the new activity - over 90% enjoyed the experience “very much” and 92% indicated they “would do more in the future”. The YSDA were able to share this success and their experiences across a range of social media and also to strategic stakeholders at a final project conference in Naples. Their enthusiasm and presentation skills reinforced one of the underlying ethos of the project in encouraging young people not just to volunteer and lead activity but to be involved in all aspects of sports development. The good practice guide provides further examples of this work.

Iestyn Davies, CEO CollegesWales

4 5 YSDA Project

What is the YSDA Project?

The YSDA project was led by CollegesWales supported by six other European partner countries, the project was supported by grant funding from the European Commission via the Erasmus+ Sports programme as a “Collaborative Sports Project” The total project cost was €352K with 80% funded by the European Commision. This 2 year project focused on peer led voluntary action in sport to promote social inclusion in sport for young people aged between 16 and 24. The focus has been on developing Youth Sport Development Ambassadors (YSDAs) to develop projects with groups of young people from ethnic minority and migrant populations.

Why was the YSDA Project needed?

At an EU level the need to develop sport for social inclusion and migrant populations is seen as a priority, Social inclusion is among the EU's priorities for the role of sport in society. “By bringing people together, building communities and fighting attitudes of xenophobia and racism, sport has the potential to make an important contribution to the integration of migrants in the EU.” (EC website 2015).

The challenge facing young people from ethnic minority and migrant populations is that, in addition to the more general social barriers, they can also face further barriers to participating in recreational sport. There have been numerous studies and projects at an EU level highlighting inequality issues in the governance of sport and also high profile campaigns in football, in particular tackling racism. The issue of participation is sometimes less obviously addressed but is clearly an emerging issue for these communities as highlighted by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA):-

“Widening participation in sports - Women and girls with a minority or migrant background are particularly underrepresented. In some countries, social exclusion and geographical isolation can lead to low participation levels of Roma and Travellers in sport. Unavailability of sports facilities in certain areas also reduces participation levels of some groups. “ www.fra.europa.eu

6 Some examples of the situation in partner countries are provided below:

In Wales, for example, research has demonstrated that “the overall picture is sharp and clear; those children and young people from Minority Ethnic Groups in Wales are significantly less likely to be hooked on sport than the white Welsh population.” Sport Wales Briefing paper 2015.

In Bulgaria, the project represents a perfect learning environment for participants and coincides with the need in Bulgarian society for the promotion of integration due to the fact that minorities from 11% of the population. During the last few years, the country has also been the first stop of the refugees from different war conflicts. These minority groups, for different reasons, are not able to integrate properly into society.

Who took part in the YSDA project?

The YSDA project has targeted minority populations in the seven partner countries through youth-led, multilingual projects, using peer-led voluntary action. The objective of this work aimed to engage with young people using sport and physical activity, developed specifically for their social and ethnic groups. The project included between 15-20 project staff and mentors supporting 7 YSDA delivering activities to between 400 – 800 young people.

How did the YSDA project work? The use of young people in the role of YSDAs to specifically research, develop and deliver activities for their peers provided an innovative and sustainable solution for the future delivery of grassroots sport. This experience is born out of the success at a local level of using young people as sports ambassadors in Wales to develop activity for their peers.

The project provided opportunities for young people to develop their sports development skills in a voluntary setting using innovative ways to engage their peer groups. A key innovative aspect of this programme is that the YSDAs had a development, implementation and planning role rather than purely a delivery role.

7 How did the YSDA project work? The use of young people in the role of YSDAs to specifically research, develop and deliver activities for their peers provided an innovative and sustainable solution for the future delivery of grassroots sport. This experience is born out of the success at a local level of using young people as sports ambassadors in Wales to develop activity for their peers. The project provided opportunities for young people to develop their sports development skills in a voluntary setting using innovative ways to engage their peer groups. A key innovative aspect of this programme is that the YSDAs had a development, implementation and planning role rather than purely a delivery role. Where did the YSDA project take place? The YSDA project took place in the partner countries involved in the project, Wales (UK), Bulgaria, , , Hungary, and Slovenia. Within each country partners identified groups from communities and grassroots sports clubs that would

Wales (UK) Multiple groups linked to Muslim, African and Eastern European groups in 4 regional cities Italy Muslim and migrant populations

Slovenia Migrants from countries within the former Yugoslavia displaced by conflict Poland Migrants from Ukraine

Portugal African migrants

Bulgaria Turkish and Pomak minority groups

Hungary Roma populations

Within the genuinely transnational nature of the project there has been a healthy range of organisations including sports clubs, education and youth sport organisations. There was also a balance of national, regional and municipal provision within the project. While the delivery of the project took place in local communities linked to the partner countries the YSDA had also opportunities to visit partner countries on mobility visits as part of their training for the project. How was the YSDA project delivered? The partners in the YSDA project have been selected through a range of methods including networking at the EU sport info day and through the Partner search tool provided by the EU. Partners have been selected from countries across a range of European countries with the aim of providing a truly transnational approach to the project including countries from a wide geographical area within the EU. The partners involved brought different cultural experiences to the project which has been embraced and analysed in the project data and by the YSDAs in their respective countries. benefit from participation in the YSDA project.

8 Good Practices from the YSDA

Starting in January 2017 the YSDA project was ambitious in in its aim of using voluntary action by young people to create new activity for the target groups in their communities. Working with both young people and hard to reach groups presented challenges and experiences throughout the project but also a great deal of new understanding and knowledge for all involved.

In this guide, the team involved in coordinating the project has selected some of the most effective examples of peer-led interventions based on the creativity and passion for sport of the people involved. These good practices will not only provide motivation for this type of activity but also offer a wide range of new working practice with different cultures and social environments. We believe that these examples will inspire organisations and individuals working with similar groups to use the leadership and sports development skill of young people in developing new activity.

Further research on the project can be found in the project research report (available on request)

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Examples of best practice:

Name : CollegesWales YSDA : Conor Lees When : 31/1/18 - 28/2/18 Where : Coleg Gwent, Newport Campus, Wales Who : ESOL Students (English for Example of best practice : Intergrating speakers of other languages) activity into educational programmes for students learning foreign langages

Description The project at Coleg Gwent was based around a class of students studying ESOL (English for speakers of other languages). The class consisted of 20 learners -4 females and 16 males. They were predominantly unaccompanied asylum seeking minors and refugees from several countries: •Iran, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, , , Albania, Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea, Ethiopia and . The majority were under the care of Social Services. Some lived in foster care with Welsh families, others in asylum houses and one or two with their own family. The learners were often isolated by their lack of English skills and feeling lonely without their families. Some of them had very difficult journeys to the UK and many of them had stories of hardship that some of us couldn’t even imagine. Often these learner came with emotional issues and would find it hard to engage.

The YSDA project created a new programme of activity for the class including badminton, gym sessions, boxercise, table tennis, football and trampolining. This allowed the group to socialise with other group members and their course tutor.

The impact of this project on the group has been : Creation of a feeling of teamwork Improved English Language skills Increased confidence and motivation Increased physical activity levels

This micro-project has now resulted in the college introducing sports and physical activity for ESOL students and other learners and created new links to local sports clubs and facilities. There is opportunity now for any college delivering ESOL to learn from this activity and also develop projects for their learners.

10 Name : Bulgarian Sports Development YSDA : Musalina Dzhalil Association When : 30/1/18 - 26/4/18 Where : Yakoruda

Who : School kids in local high school in Example of best practice : Widening Yakorda access to sport and physical activity for minority opulations in areas of deprivation

Description In Yakoruda there were many challenges for the YSDA to deliver the project activity. This target group has been chosen as they live in the mountain area of Bulgaria, in small villages with very low opportunities. Most of the villages do not have any possibilities to do sport as for example the village of Musalina Dzhalil (YSDA) Yakoruda do not have any sport club or facilities, except of the school yard. The village have almost 6000 inhabitants and very, very limited access to sport activities. During some of the local projects also Roma people has been included, that are another vulnerable group of local population.

For these participants it was difficult in some cases for young women and girls to take part in sport for cultural reasons, it was also a problem for some to travel to attend meetings and events. Musalina was able to work with the principal at the school to run activities at the school facilities and create new opportunities for the young people from Yakoruda to take part in volleyball, hiking, basketball, dance, gymnastics and football. This activiy has inspired the school and the young people involved to continue sport and physical activity

11 Name : AssociazoneISES YSDA : Alessia Crepaldi

When : 3/5/18 - 3/6/18 Where : Casale Monferrato - Italy Who : First and second generation Example of best practice : immigrants from Romanian, Albania, Creating new activity at a regional level Morrocco and Africa connecting with specialsit sports clubs and events

Description Alessia and the Italian YSDA worked closely with local sports clubs and high schools to create new opportunities for the young people from Casale Monferrato. Activity included Rugy, Volleyball, Football and Basketball.

Some of the activities involved clubs that have worked hard to integrate people from migrant populations in new sports for them like Rugby. This experience meant that the YSDA could use the experience from local clubs of the challenges in engaging with hard to reach groups and also provision of low – cost sustainable activity.

The Italian YSDA also used the festival format to promote their activity at the end of the project using local DJs and music to engage with the young people invovled.

Alessia provided a short summary on why she felt the project was succesful from the perspective of a young person.

The multicultural aspects of the project, the involvement of immigrants and the students of my school represented for me the real added value of the project. It is not so usual to involve these 3 groups in a project, even if we consider the local context. I also really liked the opportunity to meet youth living in other countries and to share their vision of the project, their feelings and vision. I also appreciated a lot the atmosphere created during the exchanged activities.

12 Name : Dekut Hungary YSDA : Various When : 7/12/17 - 26/5/18 Where : Hajduhadhaz Who : Young Roma people from local Example of best practice : Working with Secondary School – current and former Roma people via community groups and pupils local education providers

Description The project in Hungary worked specifically with one community of Roma people in the town of Hajduhadhaz near Debrecen. This town has a large population of Roma people who face many social challenges and did not regularly take part in sport and physical activity. There were also situations where « local » sports facilities were only available to certain groups for a variety of reasons presenting barriers to the young people wanting to play Sport.

With the investment from the project the YSDA were able to put together a really varied project making new connections with the local secondary school, boxing club and community sports centre. New activities like Kung Fu and American Football were used to create interest and more traditional activities like basketball and football were offered also.

Some gender based barriers were overcome with new activities being arranged at the local boxing club. Previously the facility had not been made available to Women and girls and the YSDA project created some new sessions widening access to the facility.

The project in Hungary also made a strong connection with local civil organsiation FIKSZ PONT Egyesület making use of their knowledge of the local community and support for social inclusion.

One of the final activities of the project invovled Fencing at a community sports facility that had previously not been open to the Roma people. This represented a big achievement for the project as it provided an opportunity for the local young people to use this facility for the first time and potentially future use.

13 Name : Media Sport - Slovenia YSDA : Grega Snoj When : 22/1/18 - 27/3/18 Where : Ljubliana Who : Young people from Ethnic Example of best practice : Promoting Minority groups linked to the former activity through wider networks linked to Yugolsavia media and education

Media Sport focused on working with young people from communities Description with a high percentage of people from the former Yugoslavia. Many of the young people involved face social challenges and educational problems due to language barriers and lack of intergration.

The YSDA in Slovenia created a really diverse range of activities to motivate the young people but still experienced some issues in motivation and participation. Activities included breakdancing, swimming, yoga, fitness, hiking and more traditional sports like basketball, volleyball and football. The experience of trying to overcome these motivational challenges was really valuable for the young people invovled and provided some ‘real’ work experience for future employment.

Grega Snoj was one of the leading YSDA in Slovenia and was able to share his experiences on national TV via a live streaming event linked to the project. Media Sport have experience of delivering sports projects for groups from mutiple nations including Sogarija a national TV show promoting sport and education.

Evidence from the micro-projects in Slovenia indicated that the participants benefited from speaking more Slovenian during the activities, some would normally not do this and would speak the language of their ethnic group. It also provided evidence that the YSDA developed their language skills using more English in a different context when meeting other YSDA on mobility visits.

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Name : Mirandela Municipality - Portugal When : 12/2/18 - 23/4/18 Where : Mirandela Who : University students from North Example of best practice : Africa studying at the local university Conecting project delivery by municipality Es –ACT IPB group with minority groups within University sector Mirandela was the only municipality involved in the YSDA project bringing, Description experience of delivering community sports activity and projects to local citizens in the region. The YSDA on the project made contact with groups of North African students studying at the University (Name of Uni) to engage them in new sports and physical activity within the municipality.

Activities focussed on traditional sports such as football, volleyball and basketball which are well integrated in community sport in Mirandela. This provided a great opportunity for the students who had previously been quite isolated to engage with new sporting opportunities within the local area.

15 Project Partners

The organisations selected within the partnership provided the following: - Access to the target demographic groups in their respective countries. - An appropriate mixture of national, regional and municipal sports organisations linked to a wider range of sectors. - Experience of working on European projects and managing significant projects within their own countries in the field of sport. - The financial capacity to support the co financing of the project. - The necessary experience of delivering project data and disseminating information.

Name Short description of the organization Country CollegesWales CollegesWales /ColegauCymru is the national organisation that Wales / represents all of the Further Education (FE) colleges and UK institutions in Wales.

Športno Društvo Media Sport is a non-profit NGO with a long record of Slovenia Media Šport achievement in the field of sports for young people.

Município de Our organization is a dynamic Municipality with lots of sport Portugal Mirandela activities; this dynamic makes our County a reference in sports in the Northeast of Portugal.

Istituto Europeo ISES was founded in 2008 as a non-profit organization to spread Italy per lo Sviluppo European culture in Italy and to get closer public agencies, Socio Economico businesses and the third sector to the EU institutions

Klub Koszykówki Basketball Club "Sea Wolves" is a club established after many Poland Wilki Morskie transformations on the basis of the most distinguished for Szczecin basketball.

DEKUT Nonprofit Dekut NPO is a non-profit research centre, working for the Hungary Kft economic development of the North Great Plain Region for over 10 years.

Bulgarian Sports BSDA was founded in 2010 and is a nonprofit public benefit Bulgaria Development organization devoted to the development of Bulgarian sport and Association improving sporting culture in Bulgaria.

While all partners completed the project up until the YSDA training phase, Klub Koszykówki Wilki Morskie withdrew from the project in June 2018.

16 Project Background

The YSDA project was set against a background of increasing problems of inactivity at an EU level and that of specific countries. There are a number of initiatives in place in Europe and at a national level to tackle issues such as childhood obesity, participation among girls in sport and the need to develop a more skilled and experienced volunteer workforce to achieve these aims.

Within the project lifecycle there have been numerous opportunities embraced by partners on the project to make use of existing related EU projects and initiatives and also to connect the project to local and national sports and cultural events. Some examples of good practice in connecting the YSDA project are indicated below:

Wales – Project training for project managers, mentors and YSDA delivered by Young Ambassadors Cymru and staff from the BME Sport Cymru project. Project showcased at regional events in Wales linked to celebrations for 25 years of Erasmus + including representatives from the UK national agency and British Council.

Bulgaria – Project has been promoted through different channels and reached more than 60 media coverage articles. Multiple project presentations has been delivered, including to different in their range and target group schools and educational institutions. One of the YSDA’s had the possibility to meet with the minister of youth and sport prof. Dasheva and to present the activities of the project.

Slovenia – Project connected with national TV programme Sogarija including live TV interviews of YSDA.

Portugal - YSDA project mobility to Mirandela arranged to coincide with the European Week of Sport events in the municipality. Visiting YSDA and mentors able to participate in YSDA training and activity and also learn more about the EWOS and how it is delivered in the Portuguese Context.

Hungary – Project mobility timed to link up with regional cultural festivals in Hajduhadhaz making connections with Civil and cultural organisations linked to the Roma community including FiksPoint. Visiting YSDA and mentors able to connect directly with the community and culture of the Roma people and also share in training ad development.

Italy – Connection at final conference with regional and national media including written press and television. Opportunities to share project experiences with external organisations linked to social .

17 Project Impact

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Project Impact

19 Useful Links

Country Link

Wales Colleges Wales

Hungary Dekut

Portugal Mirandela

Italy ISES

Slovenia Zogarija

Bulgaria Bulgarian Sports

Poland kingwilki

External Links:

Young Ambassadors Cymru

Tam Tam Basketball

BME Sport Cymru

Cricket Beyond Boundaries

Sociale IT

Casale News

Zogarija Sporting Event

Multiple Zogarija Events

Dekut Evaluation

Fiksz Pont Egyesület Events

European Everyday of Sport

Good Governance Sport

European Week of Sports

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