NEWS

The Eco-friendly Sports project aims to enable young people to be informed and qualified on issues of sustainability and nature protection in order to be active citizens, promoting these issues in their lives by creating valuable interactions with the sports sector. The activities aim to channel the energy of young people to promote the concept of sport, ecology, well-being and health-improving physical activity. The aim of the project is to promote sports and physical activity, which not only contribute to better health, but also have a positive impact on the environment (2 in 1).

THE OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT ARE:
• To promote and develop new methods of teaching in the field of environment through sports;
• To increase the number of organized events - collection of best practices such as events for cleaning, plogging, planting trees, building birdhouses, repairing cafes, etc.;
• To encourage the involvement of citizens in sports, but also to encourage them to take action for a better environment;
• To improve the knowledge and experience of representatives of sports clubs and youth workers on the concept of eco-sports;
• To be close to and carry out activities in natural areas and to provide invaluable opportunities in the urban lifestyle in order to maintain the physical and mental health of people and significantly reduce stress levels;
• To contribute to the social inclusion of disadvantaged young people;
• Building a society that feels close and attached to nature, will contribute to the sustainable use of natural resources and thus the construction of sustainable cities;
• Increasing the recognition of the value of nature among the urban population is going to have a direct contribution to nature conservation (nature conservation is closely linked to politicians and decision-makers and people living in urban societies);
• To generate public awareness about the possible connection between sport and environmental protection.


ECO-FRIENDLY SPORTS AIMS TO IMPLEMENT SEVERAL ACTIVITIES AND RESULTS:
1. 3 international meetings of representatives of partner organizations;
2. Research of already organized events - collection of best practices and possible methods for combining sports and environmental protection;
3. Mobilization and capacity building of young people to share experience in sports and educational programs;
4. Preparation of programs for sports and nature;
5. Dissemination of the developed model among other selected sports clubs and in the available institutions. Local events (at least 8 local eco-sports events are going to be organized in each partner country. The partner organizations are going to focus on the participation of both children and young people with disadvantaged background - e.g. migrants, young people with fewer opportunities, minorities, NEETs, Roma or young people facing radicalization, etc.);
6. Dissemination events in two pilot countries for representatives of sports clubs, sports associations, but also youth workers, teachers and NGO representatives in order to present research results and organized events; Sharing the identified good practices, discussing and developing new methods that could be used in the future;
7. Preparation of a publication and final report, where the project will be presented, promoting different types of methods and events that can be organized, tips on how to organize eco-sports events and programs, how to make them more interactive and fun (especially when the volunteers are children), summarizing Websites where more information can be found, etc.;
8. Closing conference and evaluation meeting, where the results of the project are going to be presented.

Eco-friendly Sports project is co-financed under the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union.