The project aimed from its kick off to achieve social inclusion of young adults in marginal areas (more concretely, Rinkeby and Tensta in Stockholm, Sweden, and the Tarragona province in Spain), using football as the main tool. The main objective was educating coaches to encourage football practice in a safe and inclusive environment and give them the tools to engage and develop young players so they don’t lose interest and keep practicing sport. Thus, main specific objectives were: - To create educational materials that train coaches in values such as teamwork, respect and empathy, through football, that can be used in their daily life. - To raise awareness about the potential of sport as a tool for social inclusion. - To support the engagement of young adults from disadvantaged backgrounds in community activities - To work out a common strategy to address common needs in education and sport - To reinforce capacity of the participating organisations to work transnationally and across sectors (sports, education, digitalization, etc.)
The partners started to discuss the possibility of working together in a project that tackled social inclusion through football after meeting in an international sport event. The staff, trainers and coaches, working with young adults identified that after the schooling system, children who grow up in marginalised areas, surrounded by people from difficult backgrounds, have difficulties to join leisure activities that make them feel included in the society and engage them in social life. Partners saw this situation in many other countries, where numerous examples happen in the described marginalised areas, like in Paris in France, where the situation started to radicalise. Partners also identified a tendency of young adults to leave the practice of sport after the schooling system and the two football organisations from Spain and Sweden saw that most of the coaches in young teams have no coaching education, many are parents of players, and most of them do it for the love of the sport. This is why the three partners believed it was important to apply for ths project: there existed an evident lack of training for coaches and a great opportunity for young adults to be educated as football coaches and bcome role models.