Szövetségünk partnerként vesz részt a Meter Matters elnevezésű Erasmus+ projektben (2022 június 1. – 2024. május 31.), melynek projektindító megbeszélését Ljubljanában, a Ljubljana Egyetem, mint projekt koordinátor szervezésében tartották június 21-én.

A projekt további partnerei: a Szlovén Speciális Olimpia, a Magyar Testnevelési Egyetem, a portugál Coimbra Egyetem, valamint a portugál APDA Coimbra (Associacao Portuguesa para as Perturbacoed do Desenvolvimento u Autismo de Coimbra).

A projekt témája a sportban megvalósítható inklúzió feltárása azzal a céllal, hogy a) megfelelő kritériumokat dolgozzanak ki olyan, többségi sportszervezetek által kínált sportprogramok társfinanszírozására, melyekben részesülnek az értelmi sérült emberek is; b) modellt kínáljanak országos szinten az inklúzió társfinanszírozására.

Az inkluzív sportkörnyezet társfinanszírozásának kritérumait a következő akíciók során térképezzük fel: 1) a többségi sportklubokban működő inkluzív edzők fókuszcsoportja által, 2) sportolók és szüleik, vagy gondozóik fókusz csoportja által.

Továbbá interjúk készülnek az inkluzív sport területén jártas szakemberekkel, valamint együttműködünk matematikus/statisztikussal is, aki segít meghatározni a legmegfelelőbb, legrealisztikusabb mérőszámokat.

June, 22 - The Kick-Off Meeting for Erasmus+ project Metter Matters happened yesterday in Ljubljana, hosted by Faculty of Sport, University of Ljubljana, the coordinator of the project. Partners from Slovenia and Portugal were introduced to the project, being active till the end of May 2024. The University of Coimbra, Portugal, APPDA Coimbra – Associacao Portuguesa para as Perturbacoed do Desenvolvimento u Autismo de Coimbra and Special Olympics Slovenia overviewed the project content and structure together with the coordinator as partners from Hungary – University of Physical Education and Special Olympics Hungary were already introduced in the beginning of June.  

The Meter Matters project will explore the field of inclusion in sport with the aim of a) proposing appropriate criteria for co-financing sports programs involving people with intellectual impairment in mainstream sports organizations and b) proposing a model for co-financing inclusion in sport at the national level.

Based on some research in the field of inclusion in sport and the successful Erasmus + project "Promoting Social Inclusion of Persons with Mental Disabilities through Sport", some important facts are already known as:

(1) which are the groups of people involved in various inclusive sports programs (people with diverse abilities, people with mental health challenges, former elite athletes, senior athletes – veterans, etc.),

(2) what types of inclusive sports programs exist (rehabilitation, recreational, competitive) and

(3) the different implementation areas of inclusive sports programs (sports, social clubs, health centers, business environments, etc.).

Equal involvement of all people in sports activities is, in terms of national and international guidelines, enshrined in some conventions and strategies in the field of sports, as well as human rights, social security, physical and mental health, architecture, environment and public administration (White Paper on Sport, United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, European Disability Strategy 2010-2020 etc.).

In practice, we already recognize the providers of inclusive sports programs. We also find national legislation that supports inclusive participation. In 2018 an interesting research has been conducted published in EU Publications with a title Mapping on access to sport for people with disabilities where we find many useful information for our project among which we can read: … “the complex range of sources and varying governance and management structures across the member states, have made it difficult within the limits of this small-scale research to identify overall funding levels dedicated to sport participation for people with disabilities. The country reviews however suggest that across the EU there is a strong variation in levels of funding allocated to sport participation programs.”

We note that there is a gap between the practice and EU guidelines in terms of sustainable support for inclusive sports programs in the form of co-financing by state and local (municipal) resources. We observe considerable opacity in the regulation of the field. Given that there are both, (1) relevant programs and (2) inclusive legislation and policies, we believe that the reason for the missing article is reflected in the undeveloped criteria for measuring inclusion in sport.

Major sports programs are usually co-financed based on crowds (number of involved athletes) and performance (sports score). In the field of inclusion in sports, the criteria cannot be the same, as it is basically a smaller population. There are currently more than 2 billion disabled people in the world, that is 37.5% of the world’s population. The goals of inclusion in sport are not focused on competitive results, but on opening equal opportunities for all, regardless of their psychophysical abilities.

In the Meter Matters program, we will search for criteria for co-financing inclusion in sports through focus groups and interviews with experts in the field of inclusion in sport. And finally, we will work with an expert in the field of mathematics and statistics to determine the most appropriate, realistic and, above all, measurable parameters.

All our action steps mean an upgrade or continuation of the here mentioned projects.

The next meeting will be in January 2023 in Portugal.

Urška Kustura