We are happy to announce that our project “IRIS”, was awarded by ERASMUS+ programme, both as a "SUCCESS STORY" and as a "GOOD PRACTICE EXAMPLE".

Projects awarded as "SUCCESS STORY" are those that have distinguished themselves by their impact, contribution to policy making, innovative results or creative approach and can be a source of inspiration for others.

Additionally, projects awarded as "GOOD PRACTICE EXAMPLE" are those that have been particularly well managed and can be an inspiration for others.

As a consequence of these selections, visibility and acknowledgement will be given to IRIS project, for instance on E+ websites, social media, and when preparing documentation for conferences or other events with high-ranking attendance.

We at ProTeA believe that a good project is based upon an exceptional inspiration for solving an existing problem and a good team to implement the proposed solution.

Where the inspiration came from?

It is not rare to witness incidents of racism and discrimination in our societies. Even more, such incidents are frequently observed in younger ages and in environments that is least expected i.e. schools, neighborhoods etc.

Therefore, we were seeking a way to mitigate these incidents and Erasmus+ Sports programme was such an opportunity, since sports are an integral part of our society today.

However, racism and discrimination is also happening in the professional sports world, and it is a phenomenon that encourages intolerance and sometimes even violence and hooliganism. Even more, the impact of such incidents may be huge for our societies and especially for young children, which have professional athletes as role models.

So how to treat this situation?

Besides tackling this problem on the professional sports level, with the appliance of strict rules and penalties for athletes and fans that are misbehaving, it seems even more important to address the problem at an earlier stage, at grassroots sports level, where a change of attitude must be sought.

By developing and applying new approaches for tackling violence, racism and intolerance in school-level sports, the society takes away the opportunity for young people to consider these behaviors as acceptable.

Therefore, after validating our assumption through existing research, we reached at the conclusion that if racism and discrimination is prevented in young age then it is highly probable that they will not be performed either later on.

This was the triggering factor for designing "IRIS - Innovative learning Resources to foster equal participation In grassroots Sports dealing with discrimination, racism and violence incidents" project!

IRIS aimed at supporting prevention of violence, racism and intolerance in sports, through innovative educational approaches. We envisaged that an appropriate environment to achieve this, is the school and the amateur sports clubs, through their didactic processes and sports activities.

School-based Physical Education (PE) has traditionally been a major way for children to participate in organized sport. For most children PE is a source of fun, stimulation and pleasure, thus the PE teachers that deliver this education are major influencers of their lives.

The situation is similar also in sports clubs, where Coaches are providing skilled instructions to young athletes and thus constitute vital role models for the children.

In order for PE teachers and Coaches to be able to prevent phenomena of intolerance, violence, racism etc, it is important for them to be able to recognize their signs and to have the skills and tools for restraining them.

IRIS project focused on school-level grassroots sports and the involved coaches and physical education teachers as education practitioners and multiplying factors.

Therefore, the aim was to:

• inform coaches and PE teachers on identifying underlying problems of discrimination, racism and violence,
  
• train them on novel didactic approaches for preventing these phenomena,
• and provide them with educational tools for applying and integrating these approaches in everyday school sports activities.

We envisaged that this aim would better be served by a mixed approach; distance learning methods for the training of the target group and in person support and mentoring during the piloting phase. This innovative strategy would allow addressing the training-piloting process in a holistic manner and through this to expect better results and valuable feedback.

After defining these basic elements of the project idea, we set-up a multidisciplinary project partnership consisting of:

• a public, regional VET provider (Regional Center of Vocational Training and Lifelong Learning/ GR),
• a university department focused on pedagogy, preschool and school education (Konstantin Preslavsky of Shumen /BU),
• a university faculty experienced in sport and health Sciences (Jyväskylä/ FI),
  
• an NGO working with disadvantaged groups on sports activities (Oltalom Sport Association /HU),
• a university department with expertise on social education and pedagogy (Santiago De Compostela/ ES),
• and the Hellenic Open University which is expert in distance learning (Hellenic Open University/ GR).

After 4 months of planning and 24 months of implementation, we finally reached at the project closure. Overall, the partnership worked efficiently and we collaborated exceptionally with all their team members, which lead to significant project outcomes that satisfied all of us.

Therefore, for us at ProTeA, the fact that one of our projects was awarded at such high level by an EU programme like Erasmus+ is very fulfilling and provides us with the courage to continue.

Closing, we want to congratulate all project partners and all involved people for their efforts and wish them even more success at the future!