THE PROJECT
SPEY Sport for Prevention of Extremism in Youth project and its derived programs and tools have been developed to support implementation of the EU Physical Activity Guidelines. SPEY is also aligned with the respective recommended policy actions and aims to contribute to the implementation of the Council Recommendations on health-enhancing physical activity.
The SPEY project, captained by UFEC, combines sports practice and transversal skills with the aim to minimize the factors that intervene in the process of youth radicalisation. Furthermore, it seeks to improve integration channels for youngsters at-risk of exclusion and keeps gender-based perspective crosswise throughout the project. Led by recognized academics, SPEY will produce several tools to measure the effectiveness of programs aimed at preventing extremism thought sport.
GOALS
The project is focused on reaching two general objectives:
To develop a sports program with the aim to prevent the process of adopting all types of violent ideas and behaviors among youth. Within the implementation, and knowing that extremism often uses social exclusion, SPEY also seeks to improve integration channels and support networks for people at-risk of social vulnerability. Sport’s program is created by experts in education, psychology and sport. At the same time, it is validated by a group of experts on the process of radicalization. Focused on the practice of sport, physical activity and transversal skills, SPEY will cover different areas that are already dealing with social issues. The project is designed and will be implemented through gender-sensitive lenses, also, in cooperation with different stakeholders, such as local administrations, sport federations, clubs and NGOs.
To develop measuring tools based on the analysis of the scholarly literature of the process of radicalisation and its prevention through practical programs. In this sense, a series of indicators to measure the success of the program are being developed. By doing so SPEY aims to contribute in the debate around the effectiveness of using sport as a prevention tool with ability to minimize the causes of adopting violent extremism.
Furthermore, there are also specific objectives, some derived from the general objectives:
Increasing positive and
strong relationships in the community:
we seek to improve integration channels and social cohesion.
Improving young people’s skills and values:
our goal is to offer education and training for young people though sport and transversal skills.
Enhancing wellbeing and health:
we want to improve young people’s health through sports practice.
Reinforcing cooperation
among different stakeholders:
we will create a triangle of intervention between the public administration, sports organizations and NGOs.
With this, we will increase the number of stakeholders that know the phenomenon so they can work on the prevention of the causes that intervene on it.
We will share the project with stakeholders from other countries so it can be replied and implemented in different
contexts.
TIMELINES
Different actions with all partners around Europe are being carried out in order to achieve the goals of SPEY project. To do so, we have developed the following sections:
1. Project management
Exhaustive monitoring of the program schedule with special focus on transnational meetings that will take place between stakeholders and partners of SPEY project. The objective of the meetings is to create the framework of the project, the specific tasks of each partner, the timing of each activity, the methodology and the data collection, selection and evaluation tools, etc.
2. Training modules
The objective of the modules is to share the experience of the sports program application and evaluation to the partners and different stakeholders in different countries. In those training modules different experts that have been implementing the program will explain the results of the project. In this aspect, it is included the challenges that they have faced, the successes and failures, the feedback of the participants and the improvement proposals.
3. Sports program development and test
The objective of this section is to develop the general framework of the project based on the literature reviewed. After that, the activity program will be developed by phycologists and social educators. It will include: each session of transversal key competences and sports, the recreational outings in sports events, the different trekking’s outdoors, volunteer activities, etc. At the end of the process the activities will be validated by the different partners of the project with the aim to receive a feedback from them.
4. Evaluation
All partners will take part in the project evaluation in all its different sections and application. Project participants will also evaluate the program. Finally, all proposals for change in order to minimize the risk factors that intervene in the process of radicalization will be implemented in SPEY’s toolkit.
5. Creation of the toolkit of the project
All the investigated, worked and validated information of the project will be transferred to a manual that will serve other organizations to implement the project as well as to train professionals to carry it out. A section of how to involve sports clubs to link young participants to these organizations will be also included.
6 .Communication and dissemination of the project outputs:
The webpage of the project will contain all the information and news of SPEY. It will also be the platform to share the manual of good practices. Social networks, scientific journals, newsletters and events of the different partners, will be also used to disseminate the program. Finally, three international dissemination conferences will present and promote the project in an international scale.
Also, beyond the general sections:
The impact of SPEY is expected to last through time by continuing the efforts through specific actions such as the following:
- Encouraging young participants of SPEY to participate in other training programs such as INSERsport so that they can gain access to the job market.
- Working to achieve gender equality.
- Creating mentoring ties between participants of the project. The participants will share what they learned with other young people participating in the second phase, other training projects or programs carried out by the Social Action Department of the UFEC. In this way, we want to guarantee that young people have valid role models in their lives.