NEWS

The current collaborative partnership is planning to carry out several local, national and international activities during a really intensive 30 months, which the concept of promoting synergies between the field of sport, health, education, training and youth. 8 Partners from 6 countries and 25 professionals will work together in a Consortium with high ambitions. Project applicant is the Polish organization Regional Volunteer Center.

“PROPELLERS” supports and stands up next to the bio-psycho-social model of health and its activities and plans will represent this theory throughout the project cycle, with the aim of planting its seeds in the population throughout Europe and contribute to the reform of the view about health and improving the health conditions and quality of life of the European population by increasing the participation in physical activities on a long-term. Our activities also aim to raise awareness on the added value of sport and physical activity in relation to the personal, professional and social development of individuals. We involve two main area that connects sport and education, namely the fields of ‘Education through Sport’, and ‘Education by Sport’.

By fostering bottom-up awareness and participation in Sport activities, PROPELLERS also aims at pursuing the objective of democracy in sporting bodies set in the “Principles of Good Governance in Sport”, Report elaborated by the Expert Group on Good Governance in the EU Work Plan for Sport 2011-2014. PROPELLERS will also aim at raising awareness about the European dimension of Sport and Sport practice, which, in the present partnership is embodied by the participation of 2 Bulgarian organizations- “Bulgarian Sports Development Association” and “Champions Factory” which took a leading role in the initiatives connected with Sofia’s award as the European Sport Capital for last year (2018). With a view to following-up on this achievement and gathering local experiences, the project will feature the implementation of a Study Visit/Meeting in Sofia.

Our partnership is structured in a way that during the first phase of the project, the concept and practice of Education through Sport is promoted intensively in order to make sport and active lifestyle more attractive, also emphasizing the educational effect of the activities and its possible effects on personal development. In the second phase of our project the partners will focus on raising awareness on the importance of health-enhanching physical activities, and promoting the concept of bio-psycho-social model of health. By both theoretically and practically offering opportunity to learn and participate in our activities we believe our activities will have long-term effects on the target population and the impact of the project will still produce results after the EU grant has been used up.

The main objectives of the project could be summarized as:

• Deploying an innovative synergy between the fields of sport, physical activity, health, education, training and youth sector embodied in 4 intellectual Outputs and in local awareness-raising activities spanning 6 European Union countries streamlined by a partnership of 8 organizations with different profiles, target group, experience, expertise and practices;

• Achieving a comprehensive overview of the state-of-the-art in Sport participation, physical health and mental health across a variety of target groups (children, youngsters, adults and disadvantaged individuals) for laying the grounds of country-specific programmes of awareness-raising about the connection between Sport participation and physical/mental well-being to be implemented by partners across the 6 EU partner countries. The latter overview and awareness-raising dimension will be embodied in a specific “Health SportEnBook”, produced as a tangible project output;

• Promotion of the holistic view of health, raising awareness about the importance of the health-enhancing effects of physical activities, providing theoretical and practical information and experience on the bio-psycho-social model of health, with a focus on the dimension of Education by Sport. The aforementioned outcome will be achieved through the design of a specific output, “Comprehensive Booklet on Holistic Health and Education by Sport” providing an educational as well as informational resources for Sport operators (Coaches and Trainers) and ultimate target audiences (children, youth, adults, disadvantaged individuals);

• Laying the grounds for the development of professional capacities in operators (Sport Coaches and Trainers) working in Education by Sport of the different audiences of ultimate targets (children, youngsters, adults and disadvantaged individuals) through the design of a specific Format TC based on Education Through Sport methodologies applicable across the 6 project countries and at the wider European level;

• Increase participation in physical activities and sport by a purposeful combination of educational materials/resources, local actions and events and a specific attention to the dimension of e-learning embodied by a dedicated project Web Platform integrating e-learning modules for the ultimate audience of targets as well as providing a networking architecture between organizers, targets and stakeholders in the fields of physical health, Education by Sport and Education Through Sport in partner countries and at the wider European level;

• Disseminate the accumulated knowledge and expertise of the partnership, its newly developed tools and best practices to inspire and promote further collaborations and synergies on the related topics.

Project is co-funded by ErasmusPlus Programme of the European Union.