Social Integration of Refugees through Sports Erasmus Project

Project Title

Social Integration of Refugees through Sports

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for Schools Only

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Social dialogue; Integration of refugees; EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy

Project Summary

We believe that all European countries currently encounter similar problems and challenges with regard to the social inclusion of refugees, minorities and deprived or disabled people. In all countries, both the people and their authorities try to find solutions that are suitable for the national needs, whilst most of these problems/challenges could probably better be solved in a common (European) way. We could try to build bridges between the different people to discover common solutions. We think that working towards social inclusion in this common challenge can be achieved by having the target groups do sports and games together. Doing sports and playing together brings people closer to each other, reveals the differences between people, but also shows that these differences can be overcome. Therefore, the title of the project is: SIRS: Social Inclusion of Refugees through Sports. The emphasis will be on social inclusion. How do we ensure that people with different social, cultural and ethnic backgrounds can live and work together in a peaceful way? How can we help our fellow Europeans in meeting the challenges of growing numbers of refugees and immigrants? Are we able to find a European answer to these questions?The students have the task of investigating the current situations of these target groups in order to gain solid background knowledge. Therefore, they do not only research numbers and figures on the Internet but visit and interview refugees and also stakeholders like social care workers, health care workers, workers at refugee centers, etc.. They will interact and socialize together with the target groups in doing sports and games together with them and make a film to document their investigations and interactions.During students’ conferences, the students present their results of the national investigations, discuss methods and possibilities to solve these matters and try to arrive at a common European solution for handling these problems. This discussion will also be documented on film each year and included in the final documentary film. The students will also develop a campaign, consisting of flyers, and posters. These items are used during the student meetings and on the international SIRS days, at which the students present their film showing their interaction with each other and the refugees and try to draw the attention of fellow students and parents at each national school. In this way we will try to provide students with the tools for handling similar problems that they might face in their future. The film will also be presented in the local communities, tying the presentation to a special event in the cities hosting the big meetings each year.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 143249,48 Eur

Project Coordinator

Montessori High School & Country: NL

Project Partners

• Max-Windmueller-Gymnasium
• Mimar Sinan Ortaokulu
• Elvebakken vgs
• lycée général et technologique de Bellevue