About the Project
Goals Beyond the Field: Empowering Youth through Sports and European Values
stands out for its innovative approach to integrating European Youth Goals with sports activities, creating a unique educational and developmental experience for young people with fewer opportunities. In 12 months action plan, led by IKOS and supported by a consortium of 2 youth organizations (AURYN and INTERCULTURA) and 2 sport clubs (Çağdaş Kolejliler and VC Strumica), the project targets 16 youth workers/sport staff and over 320 youth with fewer opportunities directly from rural areas and low socio-economic status and min. 230 stakeholders from public, civil and sport sectors.
The project’s core activities include local sports events and conferences aligned with significant days like Europe Day, an international training course in France for youth workers and sports staff, local ideathons for developing sport-based social solutions, local sport actions to promote European Youth Goals during the European Week of Sport, and an international youth and sport mobility in North Macedonia. These actions will be complemented by ongoing PR and dissemination efforts, including a dedicated website, podcasts, digital pin and social media engagement to ensure wide visibility and impact.
Our project deliverables will include a Training Kit on Education Through Sport (ETS), a European Youth Goals Assessment Matrix, and a Project Booklet, all designed to integrate sports with European Youth Goals and document the project’s methodologies and success stories.
“Goals Beyond the Field” aspires to be a model for using sports as a tool for social change, impacting hundreds of youth across Europe and setting a foundation for sustained engagement in sports education and youth empowerment. By integrating the European Youth Goals to sport actions, we will would like to increase the European dimensions’ reflection on our local works targeting youth with fewer opportunities.
Our Starting Point
The “Goals Beyond the Field” project aims to integrate the European Youth Goals with sports to foster personal development and promote European values among youth. This initiative recognizes the power of sports as a unifying language capable of transcending cultural and social barriers, thereby serving as an effective medium to engage a diverse youth population. The European Youth Goals, derived from extensive consultations with European youth, address critical areas such as mental health, social inclusion, education, environmental sustainability, and gender equality.
Our project is designed to improve the capabilities of organizations working with youth by integrating Education Through Sport (ETS) with the European Youth Goals. It aims to deepen young people’s understanding of these goals and motivate them to initiate sports-based projects that embody European values. The project underscores not just the physical benefits of sports but its role in teaching life skills and promoting values such as teamwork, respect, and equality.
Our proposal is a call to action for Europe’s youth to participate actively, acquire new knowledge, and take on leadership roles in an inclusive and supportive environment. Through targeted sports activities, educational workshops, and cross-cultural exchanges, the project endeavours to foster a community spirit and contribute towards a more inclusive, healthier, and sustainable Europe. This initiative represents a unique convergence of sports and European Youth Goals, aiming to empower young people to become engaged, informed, and active citizens.”
One of the key points for such a proposal is grasped from our understanding and practices on the usage of sport as one of the fundamental educational tools. Sport attracts a wide audience and can increase engagement among young people, including those who may be less likely to participate in traditional forms of civic engagement. By linking sports activities to the European Youth Goals, organizations can foster a greater sense of community and participation among youth.
We strongly believe by integrating the European Youth Goals with sports, organizations working in the field of youth can upscale the universal appeal and educational potential of sports to achieve broader social, educational, and environmental objectives. This approach not only enhances the well-being and skills of young people but also contributes to building a more inclusive, healthy, and sustainable society.
Objectives and Needs
The needs of the project
Young individuals residing in rural areas often face a unique set of challenges, primarily characterized by limited access to various opportunities that are readily available in urban settings. This includes educational, recreational, and employment opportunities, which can lead to feelings of isolation and a pervasive sense of being overlooked by broader societal developments.
In the light of the one of the field researches “Voices Of Youth On European Identity, Membership And Values From An Aspiring Country” by Nikolina Kenig and Ognen Spasovski on June 2017, 72 students with different study backgrounds at the age between 19 and 22 participated in the study. In 10 focus groups, formed on the basis of homogeneity of the field of study, they were discussing their views on the EU concept and their reflections on the congruities and incongruities between their national identity and the EU identity. Results show that respondents tend to idealize the concept of EU and are willing to accept European citizenship. On the other hand, some are skeptical and question the possibility of developing European identity and citizenship because they perceive a serious gap between the European values and the values that are dominant in the current public and political discourse.
While the European Youth Goals aim to improve conditions for young people across Europe by addressing various societal and personal development areas, their visibility faces several challenges and problems. One of the primary challenges is the lack of awareness among both young people and those who work with them, such as educators, youth workers, and policymakers. Without widespread knowledge of these goals, it becomes difficult to mobilize efforts towards achieving them.
Although sports is widely recognized as an important tool in the personal, social and professional development of young people, which was also confirmed within our projects, often when evaluating and discussing youth and education policies, the sport dimension is left out. (ENSGO, Position paper on Recognition And Validation Of Skills For Youth Gained Through Sports) Therefore, one of the important objectives of our project aims to introduce to youth workers who are familiar with NFE methodologies to bring Education Through Sport dimension to improve their methodological capacities and promote the usage of ETS to correspond to the social issues that we face at local and regional level.
Project Specific Objectives
With the implementation set of complementary activities at local and international level, we aim to create a sustainable impact by building strategic partnerships among all new-comers organizations developing educational resources, and directly engaging youth in activities that promote health, inclusion, empowerment, and sustainability through sport.
By increasing the capacity of staff to use ETS, sports can be more widely recognized and utilized as an educational methodology that supports learning and development. Also, skilled youth workers and leaders can effectively communicate and advocate for the European Youth Goals, making them more visible and actionable in local contexts.