At 30. 11. till 3. 12. 2022. our members have participated in the final meeting of the project SONKEI – Respect in sport, respect in life in Sakarya, Turkey. The main aim of the project SONKEI was the prevention of violence in sports and intolerance through education and promotion of the values of respect, courage, gender equality, inclusion, and non-violence.
Objectives of the projects on which we worked:
– A survey of the existing policies and strategies to tackle violence and intolerance in sports in different countries in the EU and abroad, adaptation of these policies and strategies to our environment, and implementation into grassroots sports organizations in the countries of all partners.
– Development of educational programs for coaches, managers, volunteers, and other sports professionals about the problem of violence and intolerance in sports and implementation of educational programs into grassroots sports organizations.
– Development of practical tools that we can use in sports to educate children and youth about how to resist bullying, violence, intolerance, and discrimination and help them cope with the violence they encounter in everyday life.
– Educate coaches about the procedures in case they recognize violence or if they are trusted by children, youth, and adults about the violence they encounter.
– Promotion of the activities and the results of the project in the local environment of each partner and as many EU territories as possible with the help of Ambassadors of Nonviolence. Ambassadors of Nonviolence will be famous athletes, well known in local communities.
Alongside with the project team members from Slovenia, Croatia, Portugal, Italy, Turkey, Romania, and Bulgaria they met to evaluate the work in the Erasmus+ Sport project. The meeting was organized in collaboration with the project coordinator and host organization, Kargenc Club (TUR). During this transnational project meeting, the main topics of discussion were: project implementation; its evaluation, and administrative and technical work.
Under this project, which lasts for 2 years, the project consortium implemented 5 transnational project meetings, 11 multiplier sport events, 48 pilot training for children and youth, and 3 online meetings.
Some of the results of this project that were achieved through the cooperation of the partners are the following:
- Survey report
- Prevention and intervention kit
- SONKEI Educational kit
The educational kit consists of two parts: the SONKEI Manual for sports professionals and the SONKEI Practical Educational Tools for raising the awareness of children and youth about violence and discrimination in sports.
One of the parts of this final transnational meeting was the conference, whose aim was to present the activities and raise awareness about the importance of tackling violence and discrimination in sports. The conference was organized at the University of Sakarya, Faculty of Sports, so most participants were sports professors and students of sports. With this conference, the project SONKEI has come to an end, but its results will remain as a legacy of the project consortium and its work.
To stay in touch with SONKEI project visit page https://sonkei.eu/ . And remember a great anger and violence can never build a nation.
