How to use the toolkit

• Most legislations including the European Union puts access to sport as an inalienable right. This implies the same chances of participation for different target groups including those who are marginalized by poverty, disease, discrimination or conflict, old and young, poor and rich, males or females, unemployed or in work. Every individual has the chance to take part in Sport for All activities
• “The practice of sport is a human right. Every individual must have the possibility of practising sport, without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit.” (Olympic Charter)
• More than ever the world needs to strength its capacity to recover and heal after such an unprecedented situation
• There is an increased attention to issues affecting our times which are covered in the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals, an accepted framework that drives global efforts towards the consecution of Agenda 2030 and the call to Leave No One Behind, a common aim also for Sport for All initiatives.
• Sport for All should also need to fulfil a development goal beyond physical conditioning and recreation. As Nelson Mandela quoted: “Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire and to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand. Sport can create hope where once there was only despair. It is more powerful than government in breaking down racial barriers”

• Peace, Development & Partnership
• Gender Equity
• Education
• Social Inclusion
• Play & Physical Literacy
• Active Cities
• The Environment
• Cultural Heritage & Diversity
• Governance, Leadership & Integrity
• Community & Volunteerism
• Physical Health
• Mental Well-Being
• Economic Impact & Resources
• Crime Prevention
• Substance use and abuse
• Post-disaster/trauma relief and normalization of life

International Sport Organisations, with their national and local networks of federations and Sport clubs, have a key role to play in ensuring the development and promotion of Sport for All. Sport for All is also a crucial asset at hand to support their own development as organisations, Sport and disciplines.

Partnership and sponsorship attractiveness

• Brand equity and positive image transfer and perception for both the ISOs (the Sport) and for its key stakeholders
• CSR alternatives to attract/add value to sponsors

Sport Massification

• Increase of ISOs popularity
• Increase the membership base (member countries and participants)
• Emerging talents: Sport for All opens opportunities for prospects that may pursue a Sport career later on in each Sport

New installed capabilities

• Involving a wide range of people in developing programmes, in the planning and implementation level, could provide creative thinking, new insights and ideas.
• A supportive environment with Clubs/Educational Institutions is important. It can bring new alternatives when organizing Sport events such as a national tournament where many facilities are required.
• More empowered coaches can attract more participants.

Involvement of key actors

• Reach new volunteer groups.
• Jointly organised and implemented Sport for All actions can bring together different stakeholders. Therefore, ISOs have unique opportunities to connect with other relevant groups: political level, academia, other Sport organisations, third sector, etc.
• Alternative to recognize former athletes.
• Opportunity for retired athletes or veterans to be attracted again to ISOs:
  • Create opportunities that keep the relationship of a veteran with its ISO, which may prevent many negative factors.
  • Create involvement with new generations to transfer experiences and knowledge.

Advocacy

• To gain notoriety as an ISOs, which later on can increase the advocacy capacity of the IOS.
• Sport events have shown it has the potential to spread advocacy messages and to influence all who are affected by these celebrations. As occurred in Sochi 2014 or during the last Euro Cup. Touching this core topic would mean a positive image transfer for ISOs.
• Creation of role models.
• Image perception for the ISO: Sport, through massive events and its top figures, has the potential to generate advocacy on the importance of promoting relevant social objectives such as equity and empowerment for people no matter their gender identity or sexual orientation.
• Gender equity: Equal opportunities can be achieved in and through Sport by raising awareness of existent inequalities and establishing Sport-related policies and programmes aimed at reducing them.
• There is a direct endorsement of the IOC to the participation of refugees. The support of athletes with this background will have a positive acknowledgment from Sport organizations and other opinion leaders.
• A strong argument for ISOs aiming to organize mega Sport or international events have strong sustainability arguments that efforts in restoring a Sport facility may also affect local residents through Sport for All plans.

Financial sustainability complementarity

• When organised by ISOs, Sport for All events can be an interesting opportunity to create additional revenue streams.
• Access to financial incentives set up by national and regional programmes (e.g., ERASMUS, ENGSO, FARE Network, etc.)
• Access to additional funding and Sport facilities from the government side. This can also contribute to the competitive aims of ISOs.
• Leveraging training and Sport facilities with public and private sector that increases the level of participation in each Sport. ISOs may dispose of new spaces where their Sport can be practiced and disseminated.
• Complementary services that can support IOSs financial sustainability, as coaching programmes and youth academies.

This Toolkit provides ISOs and other interested stakeholders a complete set of resources aiming to build  new capacities and increase the awareness towards the dissemination of Sport for All programmes.

It also emphasises the interrelations of many of the outcomes: target groups, purposes, timeframes, etc. This is in fact the central focus of the resources that are proposed.

It has been constructed upon scientific findings and recommendations of INTERACT project´s deliverables. Moreover, other resources have also been systematised, including external best practices and relevant accumulated experiences of the authors

Rather than a theoretical description, the Toolkit uses a practical approach. It presents a large practical set of resources and sample cases from a variety of sports. The idea is that ISOs can easily design their own Sport for All programme with the help of this manual adapted to one or more determined target groups that addresses to a certain purpose at a certain venue and in a certain time frame.

The core unit of the Toolkit are the Activity Boxes. As the name suggests, each of these components contains relevant criteria for each key topic that needs to be considered: Different target groups, purposes, venues and timeframes. At the end of each Activity Box, a sample case and cross references are provided that allow users to find out other complementary resources.

E.g. Children at educational facilities using sport for gender equity in a non-competitive sports event.

The Toolkit is structured in 2 core sections: Activity Boxes and Additional Guidelines:

A.    Activity Boxes

Activity Boxes present relevant resources for organising and promoting Sport for All programmes, addressing different modules: target groups, purposes, venues and timeframes. A brief summary is presented in the following lines and a detailed structure can be found in  Table of Contents

Module 1: Different Target Groups (13 Activity Boxes)

• Module 1 describes the different contributions of Sport for All to different target groups
• This part provides an overview about different target groups to be considered when designing a Sport for All programme. It shall not pretend to be exhaustive as it is quite impossible to cover all existing groups of people. The aim is rather to give an idea about possible target groups, both disadvantaged and not disadvantaged, which are encompassed in the different sections of this chapter.
• In case of examining two or more target groups, e.g., female prisoners, both sections “Women” and “Prisoners” should be approached

Module 2: Different Purposes (6 Activity Boxes)

• This section includes information about different aims for a Sport for All programme. Even if you already know what your programme should look like, the section provide some useful and inspiring ideas to your programme
• Again, this chapter cannot be exhaustive. As one Sport for All initiative can cover different purposes, it is highly recommendable to combine the purposes for each intended target group in order to design a more complete programme.

Module 3. Different Venues (6 Activity Boxes)

• This section includes information about different places where Sport for All can be organised or implemented.
• A well located and accessible site can make a huge difference in terms of sport participation.
• The section presents innovative and creative ideas and abroad approach to take advantage of any possible place where sport can be practiced: outdoors, public spaces, clubs, among other interesting possibilities

Module 4. Different Timeframes and Scopes of Projects (7 Activity Boxes)

• This section highlights the importance of events in the Sport for All plans
• includes information about different mechanisms to organize a sport event. Interestingly enough it also covers other types of events that do not necessarily require physical activity such as project launches, advocacy events, campaigns, etc.
• The main goal is to creatively shed light on new forms to create events with high added values for ISOs and participants

B.    Additional Guidelines

Complementing Activity Boxes additional cross-sectional guidelines to each of them are presented in forms of “Tips” covering sections related to coaching, event organizing, security, among others. A summary is presented next though a detailed structure can be found in the Table of Contents

Tip 1: Collection of Sport for All practical resources (7 Additional Guidelines)

The section covers guidelines related to operational factors that are determinant for any form of Sport for All

Tip 2: Specific instructions for facilitators (2 Additional Guidelines)

Coaches are the core of a Sport for All programme. This section presents key recommendations for this vital group

The toolkit will be available in the virtual platform of the INTERACT project. Therefore, users will have 3 choices when using this resource:

1. Select one of the 85 key terms related to the most important thematic. Besides its own definition, each key term comes with suggestions for related Activity Boxes and Additional Guidelines.
2. Using the tailored search button allows the user to produce merged PDFs with the Activity Boxes/Additional Guidelines of interest.
3. “Free navigation” through Activity Boxes and Additional Guidelines. The online platform links each of these sections with the other components of the Toolkit.

A.    Direct Target groups:

The toolkit is designed for International Sport Organisations and their members (ISOs). This includes international and national Sport, school federations in different levels (grassroot, adapted and professional sport). When thinking in ISOs, the Toolkit applies for:

• Managers of ISOs
• Other representatives or officials which have the mandate of promoting Sport for All.

B.    Indirect Target groups:

The final beneficiaries of this Toolkit are:

• Athletes from different levels and ages
• Coaches
• Volunteers
• Clubs and participants in general