THE EVENT

 

On 30th of September 2021 the third lecture of the online module of Sport Diplomacy Academy was delivered and it was focused on social entrepreneurship in sport in action through the sustainable model of Play More – social enterprise, based in Milan. Luigi de Micco, co-founder of the organization, has presented the long path to create meaning through sport, ensuring that participation of everyone is granted, aiming to reach sport, wellbeing and integration in local community.

The sport centre in the heart of Milan is offering hundreds of sport activities and courses and 1 in 6 kids in the facility is #BeActive for free (with dream to reach 50% of the participating kids enjoying physical activity with the support of Play More). Multiple sport activities are proposed for mixture of participants with or without disabilities, with migrant background, various ages and social status (including company employees) empowering that sport is for everyone and everyone is the same on the sport ground. The online module of #SportDiplomacyAcademy is devoted on working with media and sport for development, originally planned to be implemented in Milan, Italy.

 

THE PROJECT

 

The Sport Diplomacy Academy project is a legacy of the first Bulgarian Presidency of the EU Council, which took place in the first half of 2018. The project focus on cooperation with the Western Balkans as a logical continuation of all activities carried out under the #EU2018BG Priority: Perspective of the EU and the Western Balkans connectivity, citing the Sofia Declaration and the Sofia and EU Priority Agenda for the EU and the Western Balkans. The European Union and the Western Balkans must continue to invest in efforts to strengthen cooperation and the exchange of good practices focused on democracy, security and fundamental human rights.

Project ensures the educational mobility of coaches and other staff of sport organisations (incl. volunteers) linked to professional and grassroots sport. The four mobility modules, which will be implemented in each partner country, will improve the skills and competencies of a total of 80 sports professionals, as well as their qualifications, through learning mobility. Learning mobility is planned as an investment in human capital and a contribution to the capacity building of various sport organisations with clear focus on building a network of well-trained sport diplomats.

 

RESULTS

After the implemented project mobilities, each of the partner countries will possess with at least 20 well trained “diplomats in sport suits” with great skills and knowledge in the field of sport diplomacy (policy dialogue and international relationship, campaign creation, successful communication (verbal & non-verbal), public speaking, media relationships, protocol and etiquette, EU foreign policy and values). The network that project will create (4 countries-20 people each) will focus on supporting and developing EU integration of the Western Balkans in the field of sport and will be quality provider of EU values in their local environment. For the delivery of the modules will be recruited the best EU experts in each field and non-formal educational methods are going to be used.

 

PARTNERS

Project involves 4 partner countries – Bulgarian sports development association – academy coordinator and initiator, Rijeka sport association, Croatia, the Italian sport organization “L’ORMA” and BRAVO – Bosnian Youth and sport NGO). Partners have been working together for several years already, implementing different scale of projects and cooperating in different frameworks in the fields of sport, education and youth policy.

 

MODULES

• Module 1 (Bulgaria): Sport diplomacy, EU foreign policy, EU values, Policy dialogue and international relationships;
• Module 2 (Bosnia and Herzegovina): Summary and feedback of Module 1, local practice reports, Good governance in sport;
• Module 3 (Croatia): Summary and feedback of Module 2, local practice reports, Campaign creation, Successful communication (verbal & non-verbal), Public speaking, Protocol and etiquette;
• Module 4 (Italy): Summary and feedback of Module 3, local practice reports, Working with media, Working with specific target groups, Sport diplomacy for development, How to put on practice the knowledge we got.

 

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