- Date
- 24 Mar 2016
- Tags
- Sport And Active Society
SPORT-UP
PROMOTING INCLUSION, INTEGRATION AND HEALTH OF DISABLED YOUTH THROUGH SPORT.
To provide access to sport and physical activity for disabled youth and in doing so, bring them together with their non-disabled peers.
| Location | Switzerland |
| Organisation | Foundation Sport-Up |
| Start-end date | 2009 - ongoing |
| Target group | Disabled school children / young adults |
| Reach | To date over 5,000 people have been reached with growing numbers involved each year |
| Partners | Swiss Federal Government, Charitable foundations, Private donors, Local schools and institutions, Volunteer associations |
| Key facts | Over 1'000 young people are involved in the project each year. Sport-Up also supported the participation of 34 disabled and non-disabled youngsters alongside 20,000 gymnasts from all over the world at the 14th World Gymnaestrada in 2011. |
| For inspiration | www.sportup.ch |
Download the file of the case study
SUMMARY
The Sport-Up Foundation is an independent non-profit organisation based in Switzerland. Sport-Up promotes physical activities and sports for disabled youth simultaneously integrating them with their non-disabled peers. Sport-Up also promotes awareness around disability issues and supports organisations or projects that share similar goals. Through its associated project Sportin project, the Sport-Up Foundation brings together regular and special schools for common sport days.
KEYS TO SUCCESS
Sport as a common bond
A key reason of the success of Sport-Up is to take sport as a common bond between disabled and non-disabled peers. This assists in the breaking down of barriers and thus promotes inclusion. Sport fosters values like team spirit, tolerance and respect for others and offers the possibility to overcome one's limits.
Different backgrounds for one goal
The members of the Sport-Up board are drawn from different backgrounds. Each member is highly motivated to improve the general conditions and in particular the leisure time of disabled youngsters around sport and physical activity. Together with volunteers and specialised professionals, they provide a wide variety of different creative talents and skill but who share a common motivation to develop sportive encounters between disabled and non-disabled young people.
SPORT FOR ALL OBJECTIVES
Support active societies
Sport-Up focuses on engaging both public schools and specialised schools for disabled people through the Sportin project. Reaching out through schools helps to reach children and young people across the entire community, from different backgrounds and ages. Sport-Up also partners with local volunteers to assist in the delivery in the programme. This helps further increase the impact of the Sport-Up message throughout the community.
Provide equal access to sport
Sport-Up aims to provide access to sport and physical activities for disabled youngsters. This could be by finding an individual solution for a disabled young person to participate in a sport-camp or by bringing together disabled and non-disabled youngsters for a particular event, for example. Furthermore, Sport-Up helps to finance transport costs for participants, thereby tackling one of the single biggest barriers to making sport accessible for the disabled.
Improve public health and well-being
The educational and social integration value of sport is at the heart of the Sport-Up project. By connecting disabled and non-disabled youth through sport and physical activity, Sport-Up helps to break down barriers and foster greater understanding and equality amongst communities. This is achieved while simultaneously promoting physical activity.
HOW IS THE PROGRAMME COMMUNICATED?
The Sport-Up message is spread through a host of different channels. This is achieved mainly via the Sport-Up website, local press and regular correspondence (with friends of the Foundation, partners, schools and institutions). Sport-Up also uses promotional marketing tools such as stickers, t-shirts, flags, advertising banners, badges, etc. to increase its visibility. There are plans to produce regular activity reports, a Facebook page and a newsletter to enhance the communication of the programme.
HOW IS THE PROGRAMME EVALUATED?
All of the major projects operated by Sport-Up are evaluated by way of a satisfaction survey. Further feedback is obtained from input via the Sport-Up official website. The data from these sources is collected and analysed by the Sport-Up team on a regular basis and is brought forward and considered during decision-making.