NEWS

In our local environments, the violence in sport is practically a taboo subject. We have only very limited number of reports and researches about these problems in our country, but according to the reports from other EU countries and other countries around the world, the violence in sport must be also present in our countries.

According to European Union Work Plan for Sport (2017 – 2020), one of the three main areas of activity in the field of sport is integrity of sport. This is the main aim of the project SONKEI – Respect in Sport, Respect in Life. The two main topics we will address in this area with our program is safeguarding of minors and promotion of gender equality. By educating sport professionals and participants in sport programs in grassroots sport organization we will promote positive values in sport and by doing this protect physical and moral integrity of minors in grassroots and elite sport.

SONKEI objectives are:
• A survey of the existing policies and strategies to tackle violence and intolerance in sport in different countries in EU and abroad, adaptation of this policies and strategies to our environment and implementation into grassroots sport organizations in the countries of all partners;
• Development of educational programs for coaches, managers, volunteers and other sport professionals about the problem of violence and intolerance in sport and implementation of educational programs into grassroots sport organizations;
• Development of practical tools that we can use in sport to educate children and youth about how to resist bullying, violence, intolerance and discrimination and help them cope with the violence they encounter in everyday life;
• Educate coaches about the procedures in case they recognize violence or if they are trusted by children, youth and adults about the violence they encounter. Promotion of the activities and the results of the project in the local environment of each partner and in as many EU territories as possible with the help of Ambassadors of Nonviolence. Ambassadors of Nonviolence will be famous athletes, well known in local communities.

The project addresses the following needs and benefits:
• The need to provide the safe and productive environment for every member in our grassroots sport organizations;
• The need to protect and safeguard children’s rights and gender equality in sport;
• The need to implement strategies to tackle violence and intolerance in sport;
• The need for the cooperation and the exchange of experiences and good practices among sport Organizations;
• The need for additional education of coaches and other sport professionals;
• The benefit of identifying and implementing innovative ways for sport clubs to encourage participation, physical activity and accessibility;
• The benefits of positive experience in sport;
• The benefits of learning important values such as respect, solidarity, tolerance, nonviolence and fair play;
• The benefit of informal learning and a skill development;
• The benefit of a personal development and fulfilment.

The project added values are:
• The support among organizations and the transfer of good practice and the knowledge;
• Gathering of the information about how to implement policies and procedures on grassroots sport organizations in different countries and the problems this poses;
• Building closer ties and stimulating synergy among the partners;
• The network of stakeholders that we will develop in each country will ensure the maximum transfer of knowledge and expertise;
• The outputs of the project will be translated to all partners’ languages and English and will be available in the EU countries;
• The main results will be freely available on the project’s web page, on the web pages of all partners and will be at the disposal to the interested parties;
• We will promote best practice, transfer the acquired knowledge and share our experience with challenges and opportunities in order to learn from each other;
• A better promotion of the project and better possibilities to start the discussion about the problem of violence, abuse and intolerance in sport.

The main activities of the "SONKEI" project are:
• Kick-off meeting in Sofia, Bulgaria;
• Mid-term meeting in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Hercegovina;
• Mid-term meeting in Ljubljana, Slovenia;
• Mid-term meeting in Lisbon, Portugal;
• Final conference in Sakarya, Turkey;

The expected impact of the project:
The monitoring and evaluation of impact will take place both during and after the end of the project. The main impacts of the project we anticipate are the following:
• The discussion about violence in sport is more open and there are more initiatives for the prevention, especially on the national and regional levels;
• More sport organizations have policies and strategies for violence prevention in place;
• Coaches have participated in the educational programme and have more knowledge about how to react appropriately;
• Coaches have more insight into their methods of training and can distinguish between tough training regime and violent behaviour; The culture in sport clubs is more tolerant, acceptive and sensitive to violent behaviour and abuse;
• Children and youth can spot the violent behaviour and know where to turn for help; They are better equipped to deal with violent behaviour and have better chance to stand up to it.

The project “SONKEI” is co-financed by the Erasmus + program of the European Union.