Sakarya Provincial Directorate of Youth and Sport (SPDYS)

SPDYS is a public institution directly connected with the Ministry of Youth and Sports in Turkey and implements sports and youth activities in the city as a branch of the ministry. The objectives of the institution:

• To determine policies that support the personal and social development of youth, to enable young people to realize their potential by taking into account the needs of different young groups, to develop proposals that ensure their active participation in all areas of social life through decision-making and implementation processes and to carry out activities in this direction, to ensure coordination and cooperation,
• To research the needs of the youth and the services and opportunities offered to the youth, to develop suggestions, to provide information, guidance, and counseling in the youth field,
• To determine the policies to be applied in the field of sports to ensure the implementation of international rules and instructions, and
• To perform other duties and services given to the Ministry by legislation. Some of the activities that we have implemented include national and international sports organizations in sports branches,
• Physical tests and measurements of 3^rd-grade students of Turkey’s Sportive Talent Screening,
• Getting swimming training for people from 7 to 70 within the scope of the project “Let Who Can’t Know Swimming Stay”,
• Sports organizations of local leagues in 50 or more sports branches,
• Sports training for disabled people with Happy Wednesday Project,
• Sports tournaments between clubs as part of the amateur sports week,
• Supporting the Olympic processes of the athletes with the Olympic preparation centers.

KARGENC ENVIRONMENT SPORT CLUB

Kargenc Club has been already working on encouraging all aged people into physical activity and has the philosophy of ‘Sports for All’. They are organizing several sports activities in their local areas and include people from rural to urban areas in their activities.

Kargenc Club aims to create an environment where:
– Young people and society are physically active and their well-being
– full active participation of society in their social life (specifically social inclusion of kids, young people, and women with fewer opportunities.)
– to be at peace with nature and to encourage respect for the cycle of nature
– a green World by encouraging society to raise awareness of climate change and eco-friendly lifestyles.

Their target group varies from 7 to 70 years old since they have strong relations with stakeholders such as the District Governor, National Education Directorate, District Director of Youth and Sport in the region; and they include these stakeholders in our activities to create a strong effect in our region. Thus, their target group varies as kids, young people, adults, families, seniors, and kids/young people with fewer opportunities in our region.

They are active in helping young people with fewer opportunities who don’t have the opportunity to do sports; organizing sport activities for people in rural areas, specifically for women in rural areas, and carrying out swimming activities for disabled kids.

KINITIKO ERGASTIRI

Kinitiko Ergastiri is a local non-profit sports association oriented to the field of adapted physical activity and recreation for the disabled.

The mission of Kinitiko Ergastiri is to allow persons with disability to have the same chances and access to physical activity and social life, and develop potential by promoting innovation, education, work, and experience.

Kinitiko designs, implements, and monitors sports, recreation activities, and social inclusion actions for the disabled and their families. Their objectives are to promote sports and an active way of living for people with disabilities, to promote awareness of disability, to raise self-esteem for persons with disabilities to break society barriers, and to promote

peace, non-violence, and human rights as a fundamental tool reach a world of equality and solidarity in which all human beings can access their fundamental rights. They have experience in the social inclusion field with two distinct programs:

• The “Circle of Friends” where young people with disabilities can interact with each other in the frame of a club.
• The “Family Days” where whole families can enjoy integrated sports activities along with their children.

LORMA

The Sport-Club “L’Orma”, founded in 2000, is a non – profit educational agency that develops and delivers the best possible formative sportive/expressive experiences based on non-formal education and aimed at personal and professional growth of children, parents, and sport instructors. It is a non-profit social enterprise, whose main purpose is to promote, encourage, and make social change in a financially sustainable way: all the incomes are reinvested in its mission. Working in contact with many children and families, and schools, the results of this project could help them to include in their activities all children with disabilities. The activities of this project would perfectly integrate with their local activities, especially our Summer camps (www.notformalcamp.it) where last year we got in contact with 15 kids with disabilities.

SPORTS CLUB BG AND SPORTS FOR ALL (BGSA)

Sports club BG & SPORTS FOR ALL, has been created to offer and help to all kids and adults with special needs, disabilities, or social limitations to participate in swimming sports activities together with non-disable. The club has been working for 2 years in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, and it is situated in two swimming pools. They develop individual and group swimming lessons and successfully implement the inclusion of the kids with disabilities to swim in the same groups as non-disabled kids, to collaborate, and to learn from each other.

They prepare regular and special club competitions between the kids, separated into groups depending on their swimming levels and capabilities. They also develop summer swimming camps which are open to kids with disabilities and their families. They use this tool to create a teamwork field and friendships between the kids and their families. They successfully include the parents in the sport’s lessons and increase the limits of their capability and knowledge.

UNIVERSITY LUSOFONA

University Lusófona (UL) has courses in all grading cycles (from bachelor to Doctorate) that meet European higher education requirements and comply with the European Credit Transfer System being accredited by A3ES (entity responsible for assessing and accrediting higher education in Portugal). The Physical Education and Sports Faculty within UL exists with CIDEFES, a research center that implements the scientific method as the common language for teaching, learning, and practice, developing and applying science in Sports, Physical Education, or Exercise and Health. University Lusófona places the interests of its students, professors, and collaborators at the center of all its activities, assuming that individual and collective development can only be achieved through the involvement of students and the training of professors and collaborators as crucial components of the life of the higher education institution, in this sense, the organization is committed to building a more inclusive culture.

The desire to belong is a fundamental human need and can have a powerful impact on how we behave.

The promotion of equity, inclusion, and diversity implies not only the elimination of all types of barriers to access to higher education and, therefore, access to knowledge and the opportunities that this creates but also the elaboration of pedagogical projects that carry out this will.

PORTUGUESE SWIMMING FEDERATION

The Portuguese Swimming Federation (FPN) is the only entity in Portugal responsible for the definition of the mission, values, and objectives of national swimming, in all its variants, as well as its promotion and development. The main goal of FPN is to promote, regulate, and command, at the national level, the teaching and the practice of swimming in their various disciplines, in particular, in Swimming, Para Swimming, Water Polo, Jumping, Synchronized swimming, Open Water, Masters and its variants, as well as all the sports practices carried out in swimming pools.