Start of the Sport for Prevention of Extremism in Youth project

Crédits: https://twitter.com/ARAesports/status/1229417014663487488

Monday 17 February in Barcelona, the kick-off meeting of the Sport for Prevention of Extremism in Youth project (SPEY) took place at the Catalonia Union of Sport Federations (UFEC).

The SPEY project was selected upon the European Parliament’s 2019 call for Pilot Projects, answering the theme ‘Monitoring and coaching, through sports, of youngsters at risk of radicalisation’. SPEY will unfold between January 2020 and June 2022, thanks to the support of project partners: Swedish Sport Confederation, Council of Latvian Sports Federations, Barcelona University, Greek Ministry of Culture and Sport, Catalan Hockey Federation, Union of Parishes of Gondomar, ICSSPE, Sport and Citizenship think tank, and under the management of B-Link.

UFEC hosted a local press conference to share the initiative and its objectives. SPEY thrives to dedicate itself to radicalisation prevention (including extremism, radicalisation, extreme right and left-wing) among vulnerable young people through the creation and implementation of a Sport Programme. It will be available and exploitable to a variety of stakeholders- including sport organisations, and different social or public entities working closely to with the target group. The Programme will go beyond sport activities with the creation of e-games and board games, which all seek to contribute to building community resilience and dismantling prejudices. The Programme will be tested through three experimental groups of young people at risk- one will be offered to join football activities, the second hockey activities and the third no such social activities, under the hypothesis that the latter’s mindset will not bear the same positive improvements as the first two groups. Further tangible input and understanding will be gathered during ‘Training of trainers’ sessions in Portugal and Latvia in 2021, while dissemination events are scheduled to take place during the first half of 2022 in Spain, Greece, Sweden and France.

Sport and Citizenship is proud to be part of the SPEY project- a pioneering one in Europe ! More information will soon be available.