The SIDFOOT – ‘Community Football Drivers for Social Inclusion in Deprived Districts’ project aims to make use of football and sport in general as a vehicle to promote social inclusion and healthier life for children and young people living in disadvantaged neighbourhoods.

SIDFOOT project is a Collaborative Partnership, Co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union, framed under the topic ‘Encourage Social Inclusion and Equal Opportunities in Sport’. Partners of the project are Fundación Real Betis Balompie, leader of the initiative, Universitat de les Illes Balears, Liverpool City Council, Aalborg BK, Wiener SC, Save the Dream, Agenția Metropolitană pentru Dezvoltare Durabilă Brașov, Fare network and EFDN

The project focuses on creating a positive influence on the lives of children and young people living in disadvantaged communities and involves activities that will steer young people towards education and adaption to healthier lifestyles.

The mentioned objective will be mainly reached through the creation of the figure ‘Community Football Driver’. An agent of change who will empower young and promote their active and consciously involvement.

Among the functions of the ‘Community Football Driver’, we can highlight:

  • Plan actions to be jointly carried out with the protagonists of the community and especially with children and young people.
  • Execute the actions making use of football as the main tool.
  • Participate in the different community initiatives present in the neighbourhood related to sports, supporting their consolidation and promoting their autonomy.
  • Identify the main needs of the target population through the use of participatory methodologies and identify how to address them through the practice of sports, in general, and football in particular.

SIDFOOT project has the following specific objectives:

  • Contribute to identify and put in value-successful initiatives or projects, developed at a European or even international level, in which sport in general (not exclusively football) has been used as a tool to promote social inclusion and a healthier life for the population living in deprived areas.
  • Create and implement on the field the innovative figure of the “Community Football Driver”, a reference person who will be equipped for using all the potential that football has to impulse the social inclusion and a healthier life of children and youth who live in disadvantaged neighbourhoods.
  • Develop an IT-based tool helping to self-evaluate and measure the impact of the actions and initiatives undertaken by the “Community Football Drivers” on the environment in which they are acting.
  • Contribute to the networking and cooperation between public authorities, educational institutions and sport bodies for the promotion of an inclusive sport.
  • Ensure the quality of the implementation of the project and its outputs.
  • Disseminate information about the activities implemented and results obtained.
  • Guarantee the exploitation and sustainability of project results.

The project has a duration of 30 months, starting from 01-01-2020 and ending on 30-06-2022.

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