OPEN – Open air, open sport for everybody” is a project which aims to open the possibilities and opportunities to people with different abilities to experience outdoor sports activities.
Most of us sense that just taking a walk in a forest is good for everyone, but the researchers have shown that it can do much more: it has real, quantifiable health benefits, both mental and physical.
The project aims to make them more accessible for everybody, mostly for disadvantaged, disabled or inactive people.
In order to achieve this goal, accessibility is not conceived as a sequence of technical measures, but as an experience in which people with different abilities are actively involved from the initial stages of the project.
OPEN starts from the research about the existing state of art at the local level in each partner country, involving stakeholders and structures that focus on sport and disability.
The project continues with two international meetings (in Italy and the UK) to share good practices and make the concrete experience of what outdoor inclusive sports activities mean through 2 public sport events, opened to local citizens.
It goes further, with a festival during the last international meeting in Poland also open to locals, where the possibilities and the positive effects in this field will be shown and tested.
It maximizes the efforts through a communication campaign throughout the duration of the project. The campaign is aimed to promote the project topics, which will, in the end, spread specific videos in which 5 good practices will be promoted. The videos will show the benefits which the good practices bring for inclusion and health, with the purpose of reaching the whole Europe.
According to the HEPA Guidelines and the Council Recommendation on health-enhancing physical activity, the overall aim of this project is to make our natural, woody environment and the related sport or outdoor activities more accessible for everybody, especially for people with disabilities.
The specific objectives of the proposal are:
1. Promote inclusive outdoor sport activities and events in the local natural environment;
2. Share good practices among partners coming from different environments and experiences;
3. Promote healthy activities for the psycho-physical well-being of people with disabilities, their families and professionals who work with them at local, national and European level;
4. Foster accessibility to as many people with disabilities as possible;
5. Prevent isolation, separation and marginalization of people with disabilities;
6. Involve citizens in inclusion initiatives through sport and outdoor activities.
PROJECT PARTNERS
ITALY: Le Guide Associazione Sportiva Dilettantistica and Studio Progetto Cooperativa Sociale
POLAND: Europejskie Stowarzyszenie Promocji Aktywności Ruchowej 50+
PORTUGAL: Geoclube – Associacao Juvenil de Ciencia Natureza e Aventura
MONTENEGRO: Centar za podrsku lokalnog i regionalnog razvoja CeP
UK: Momentum World CIC
PROJECT PHASES
PHASE 1: STARTING LOCALLY
Preparation: Kick-off online meeting (February 2021)
Aims: strengthen connections among partners, share objectives, methods, working instruments as the quality plan, duties and commitments.
Official project launch in each country (February 2021): Press releases and conferences, the launch of the project website and the mapping phase.
Mapping good practices in each partner country in the field of outdoor sport and inclusion which allows to re-discover local natural environment and the benefits it brings to health. (February-April 2021)
Each partner will start pointing out existing good practices at the local level that facilitate the inclusion of people with disabilities in outdoor sports activities.
International coordination and training online meeting.
May 2021
Aims:
Update the partners’ network about the results of the previous action. From these results, the partners will have important elements to realize the following phase better, plan the international sports events and focus on the good practices in the field of inclusive open-air sport about which each partner will realize an informational and promotional video.
PHASE 2: GROWING TOGETHER
The second phase will be composed of two international meetings and one or more local activities, during which the partner organizations will concretely realize inclusive open-air sports activities.
International meeting in Valdagno and Recoaro Terme (VI), Italy.
Participants: 32 participants
July 2021.
Aims:
– share competences
– make the experience of local good practices of inclusive outdoor sport activities
– understand the healthy and positive impact of outdoor activity in the natural environment
– involve local citizens to promote this type of activities
International meeting in Keswick – Lake District National Park, UK
Participants: 32 participants
September 2021
Aims:
– share competences
– make the experience of inclusive outdoor sport activities
– promote inclusive outdoor activities
– involve local citizens
Local activities in all the partners’ countries
July – December 2021
Each partner organisation will promote small local outdoor events (accessible soft walks, inclusive outdoor sports’ fair, etc.), also taking inspiration from the international experiences in Italy and UK, to promote accessibility in outdoor activities and to collect materials for the video.
During the local events, partners will record videos and edit them in order to be shown and spread during the last international event.
Online Mid-term evaluation
September 2021
Aims:
– evaluate the first phase of the project;
– acquire the qualitative and quantitative elements for evaluation of the activities so far implemented;
– collect feedback and suggestions from partner organisations on what to improve in the next phase.
PHASE 3: SPREADING RESULTS & CONCLUSION
International meeting in Warsaw, Poland
20-22 January 2022
Aims:
– collecting and spreading information about good practices in outdoor sport activities
– launch the project video campaign with all the produced videos
– planning dissemination activities and events
Launch of video campaigns and results
February-March 2022
Launch of video campaigns and results, during local events that will be organized in each partner’s country.
Project results will be presented also to students, organizing inclusive outdoor activities.
Final online conference meeting
April 2022
Aims:
– monitoring the implementation of the agreed dissemination strategy;
– run the final evaluation of the project,
– collecting all the useful data to implement the final report.
