Are you working with refugee inclusion through sport – or plan to work in this field – and need some help to get started or make a bigger impact? Then we invite you to apply to be part of ISCA’s brand new Integration of Refugees Through Sport (IRTS) Mentoring Programme. The IRTS Mentoring Programme – as part of the new IRTS Networking Platform – connects individuals and organisations from the integration of refugees through sport field through two rounds of 12-month mentorships. The objective of the mentoring is to bring together less and more experienced individuals from the field to build an international network and build the capacity of the whole sector. It will be carried out in two rounds of 12 pairs: September 2020 - October 2021October 2021 - November 2022 For the first round, we are looking for 12 motivated mentees to be matched with respective experts from the field. During the 12-month mentoring, the mentorship pairs will be engaged through an online platform and they have two chances to meet face-to-face (travel and accommodation costs covered). The mentoring pairs will be offered relevant resources throughout the programme – both relating to the IRTS field and tips/advice related to mentoring. Find out more and how to apply here Photo: Maria Lourdes Gonzalez

The MOVE Beyond project partners carefully considered potential risks before starting their pilot activities with refugees last year. But none could have anticipated a global pandemic, lockdowns and the challenge of having to move their work online – including their fourth partner meeting in April 2020. The meeting should have taken place at an asylum centre in Vänersborg, Sweden, in mid-April and be combined with a multi-stakeholder event showcasing the work of refugee activity coordinators (Intercultural Physical Activity Leaders). The event was being organised by RF-SISU’s community sport and inclusion branch StreetGames Gothenburg and Save the Children Sweden Region West. Although Sweden is one of the only countries in the world that didn’t shut down all sporting activities and kept gathering limits up towards 50 people, StreetGames and Save the Children were not willing to take the chance and risk their participants’ health. The multiplier event was postponed (also due to international travel restrictions) and they reduced the size of their outdoor activity groups to less than 10. “We don’t want to in any way be a cause of them getting the Covid-19 virus or spreading it,” Save the Children’s Abdul Adnan Ghani says. “We were even stricter than the government’s rules because we have to protect this vulnerable group.” Adnan and Hanna Johansson, from StreetGames Gothenburg, said they were impressed by how quickly the Intercultural Physical Activity Leaders improvised in response to the situation, with one of the women moving her dance classes online. But writing a Plan B scenario will certainly be part of their future project plans. “We were very optimistic in the beginning and we did not think, ‘What is the worst that could happen?’ like it did now with corona,” Hanna says. Adnan speaks from experience of having been a refugee that he was not entirely surprised the refugee leaders worked out alternative solutions so quickly. “We used to always plan for the worst case scenario because we’re living the worst case scenario, all the time being on the move and all that. We always have to have a back-up plan,” he says. Activities on hold in Europe’s worst hit countriesTwo of the MOVE Beyond partner pairs are based in two of Europe’s worst hit countries during the pandemic, Italy and the UK. Both had to put their activities on hold but have remained in frequent contact with the refugee participants online. For Northern Italian partners UISP Trentino and ATAS, this meant an abrupt stop to the football league where their mixed team of Italians, migrants and asylum seekers, Intrecciante, play their matches. During the lockdown, the players shared videos of them teaching football tricks and cooking dishes from their homelands online with the local community in Trento. “We wanted to give a positive message of social inclusion and to keep the relationship with the whole society despite the Covid-19 emergency,” Cristina Brezzi from ATAS Trentino said. The pilot project in the UK, organised by SPARC, Devon and Cornwall Refugee Support and StreetGames, had just started to take off when all of the community was forced inside. The activities were designed to help the refugees and asylum seekers get around outside with bikes, city and nature walks and swimming, so could not continue indoors – with the experience of isolation and restriction being amplified and having heartrending consequences for the group. “The current pandemic has hit the asylum seeker and refugee community disproportionally,” Suvi Rehell from Devon and Cornwall Refugee Support says. “The level of mental health struggles people are going through is really immense and really serious so there are a lot of people who would have participated in our activities three months ago who quite simply right now are not able to because they are too unwell and that is due to everything that everyone else is going through under lockdown just being multiplied.” The first to start again – when staff can come backDenmark is one of the first European countries to consider allowing grassroots sport to resume, but the Danish Red Cross and DGI will need to wait until staff in grassroots sport organisations are allowed to return to work, which is not tipped to happen until June. But the project goes on. The smiling faces of these adaptable and resilient people working in the field of Integration of Refugees Through Sport in the photo above are a reassuring sign that these initiatives will take off again when we return to a “new normal”. We recorded 4 podcast to gather these experiences from the pilot partners, how they adapted to Covid-19 lockdowns and how they started their pilots together. Listen to the podcast with the Swedish partners Save the Children Regon West and RF-SISU Västra Götaland (StreetGames Gothenburg) here and below. 3 more podcasts coming soon… By Rachel Payne, ISCA

"Enhancing skills in sport for development". On 17 June 2020 the CHANGE project partners, including ISCA, gathered for the 3rd full partner meeting. The meeting was intended to take place in Amsterdam hosted by project partner Women Win but was held online due to the ongoing Coronavirus situation. The CHANGE project, funded through the Erasmus+ Sport Programme of the EU, is developing professional standards and education in the area of sport for development by implementing the innovative 7 Step Model for lifelong learning and workforce development. The purpose of the meeting was to review and discuss the results of the research phase of the project. Research included 34 telephone interviews with sport for development organisations from the local to global level, and a literature review of over 100 academic papers, reports and job descriptions. Simone Digennaro from University of Cassino and Southern Lazio presented the results of the research under key headings including: The role of sportRecognition of sport for developmentPathways to working in sport for developmentChallenges and future of the sectorThe role of the sport for development coordinator and activator Simone also presented draft models of sport for development as understood by the interview respondents and key elements of skills and knowledge needed to work in sport for development which were gathered through the research. The purpose of the comprehensive research phase was to inform the main outputs of the project and the second part of the meeting focussed on the development of an Occupational Map and Occupational Descriptors for sport for development in Europe. Geoff Carroll from EOSE presented the structure and main content of the Occupational Map including social value of the sector, organisational structures, occupations in the sector, emerging trends and future projections. Rachel Payne from ISCA presented the key aspects of the Occupational Descriptors for sport for development coordinators and activators, including main duties, skills and knowledge, attitudes and attributes, experience and qualifications. All partners were active in the online meeting making verbal contributions or using the “text chat function” in the online software. The main actions from the meeting are to complete the drafts of the Occupational Map and Descriptors and begin work on the Functional Map, Occupational Standards and Innovative education which will be developed for the sport for development sector in Europe. Partners will meet again online in September 2020. Full list of partners - European Observatoire of Sport and Employment (EOSE); International Sport and Culture Association (ISCA); University of Cassino and Southern Lazio; Leeds Beckett University; General Secretariat for Sports; Greece, Italian Sport for All Association (USIP); Sport Union of Slovenia; StreetGames; Women Win. By project contact Ben GITTUS, EOSE Director of Standards: [email protected]

MOVE Transfer Europe-China Project started in 2018, our visit to China and Hong Kong took place in May 2019 and all of the partners and advisory group (from Europe, Asia, the US and Latin America) met for the first time in October during the MOVE Congress 2019. These first meetings now feel like an age ago, but the partners have kept working together on the project from different sides of the globe with a determination to promote physical activity in three focus areas during the lockdowns and beyond. They showcased their progress in a mid-term conference on 16 June. After the first physical meetings, the partners formed 3 online working groups: Active Schools, Outdoor Activities and Active Aging. These working groups started their online meetings regularly every month from December 2019. Being used to the online working style has enabled us to easily adapt to the “new normal” that entered our lives with COVID-19. We were already accustomed to meeting online, so the working groups continued their meetings without any challenge caused by the pandemic. The mid-term conference, which brought together 52 participants from 35 organisations in 21 countries. The conference consisted of 3 main topics: Life after a lockdown and life with COVID-19, the 3 working group topics, and the sustainability of the MOVE Transfer Europe-China partnerships. Naïs RIGOLLET from the DG EAC Sport Unit of the European Commission welcomed the group at the beginning of the conference, stating: “I would like again to congratulate you for your project activities. It is fully in line with the objectives and priorities of the European Commission. I encourage you to continue the work.” She highlighted the importance of Mobility as a tool for learning, which is also an objective of this preparatory action by the EU. The needs, barriers and the opportunities: Coping with fear and worry in a collective wayIn the first session, we talked about COVID-19 which radically effected our lives and institutions. But this time we tried to look at it from a different angle. The new opportunities emerged as well as the barriers and needs, as shown by internal questionnaires conducted in the 3 working groups and shared by the group representatives. We saw that we actually had more or less the same needs, had trouble with similar issues, and had a similar motivation to capture opportunities. Despite the distance of our countries, cultures or even working styles, the similarity of our experiences bonded us more than before in this process and we saw the magic power of being a team and sharing the experience. As Andreu Raya Demidoff from Spain underlined, we kept working as a committed and highly motivated team and profited from the online opportunities by participating V4Sport Foundation´s Physical Education Online World Record Attempt. The needs expressed by the groups were mainly the urge to feel safe and secure again during sports activities at schools, in outdoor or indoor facilities, the need for a clear communication, the need for space/venues for postponed or cancelled activities, and the need to reach different social groups, such as isolated or disadvantaged groups. When it comes to the barriers, the most important barrier expressed by the groups was financial problems. In particular, increasing expenditures and decreasing revenues, increasing organisational needs and decreasing human resources, uncertainty, fear, unclear guidance from authorities were underlined. It also made us slow down our pace of life to see what really matters to us, as Thomas Larsen Schmitt from Denmark pointed out. We also learned to address our vulnerability, support each other, and increase our adaptability to a more uncertain future. In addition, the active use of technology such as online webinars, meetings and e-platforms that have increased during this period, are also listed among the important opportunities. What have we learned from each other?The cultural diversity of the participating organisations showed how each culture can add a different and creative perspective to the situation. So, too, can the area in which they work – with elderly, schools and outdoors. In the Active Ageing Group, the main learnings were the emerging data, physical activity strategies, effect of culture on perception, interest and engagement within the different countries, as well as support made available from funding bodies. The Active Schools Group covered the topics advocating physical activity and physical education, healthy lifestyle, teacher training, school sport events and active school networks. The most important outcome was being able to work together on the major problems and solutions that schools have in Europe and Asia due to COVID-19. The Outdoor Activities Group worked on an effective promotion of outdoor activities involving the youth, community in play, sport projects or physical activity initiatives. The main learning is the knowledge sharing about outdoor activities in different countries, the effect of culture on our perception of sports, and the role of technology in promoting sport and physical activities. What comes next?The last month of the project, which officially started in January 2018, is December 2020. Therefore, the issue of maintaining the fruitful communication, cooperation and experience sharing has been one of our priorities. In our online meetings, we addressed the sustainability of the partnership in the three working groups, and we received more ideas through questionnaires. As it is foreseen, every organisation in the partnership is in favour of continuing this inspiring and creative learning process. In the Active Aging Group, German Gymnastic Federation and YMCA initiated the use of the European Fitness Badge in few clubs in China/Hong Kong and Europe, implementing the fitness tests and compare the results. They suggested the ABC exercises from Sports Union of Slovenia to be used as a proven programme for active aging. The Active Schools Group suggested joining the MOVING Schools Alliance as a platform for sustaining the cooperation, with regular webinars, forums, online meetings to combine and coordinate the efforts and share experiences. The Outdoor Activities Group has decided to continue with their online meetings and webinars on topics such as Strategy and Policy, Promotion, Inspiration and Motivation, Impact Measuring and Evaluation, and the use of Smart Technologies in Outdoor Sports. There will also be action groups according to the partners’ specific knowledge and experience. Find out more about MOVE Transfer By Hilal Erkoca, ISCA