StartingLine - Starting Line

In StartingLine, first and second-generation young migrants aged between 8 and 16 years will join local community athletics teams established from two sport organisations, CF Belenenses (CFB) in Portugal and EAS SEGAS Cyclades (ESC) in Greece. CFB and ECS will deliver a safe and supportive environment where young migrants can practice athletics and engage with local children and youth. Using sport as a common language, StartingLine will create a hub for empowerment, community, personal development, citizenship, diversity, gender equality and inclusion. Activities developed throughout the project will enable a group learning experience, encompassing both young migrants and local young people. The European Network of Sport Development (ENSE), an international nonprofit organisation focusing on sport education and policy, will instruct coaches and staff from CFB and ECS on inclusive intercultural education in culturally, ethnically, and linguistically heterogeneous groups. Leveraging their previously developed EDU:PACT training programme, they will provide project coaches and staff with the intercultural knowledge and competencies to maximise learning opportunities for young migrant groups. CFB and ECS will thus be able to deliver a well-designed, intentional intercultural athletics program to young project participants, including daily training sessions, monthly workshops on interculturality and a final transnational event. Building on the results of past activities carried out in the field, Starting Line will promote a truly evidence-based intercultural program that sets out to promote the participation of young migrants in sport, fostering inclusion and diversity, creating opportunities for education, and combating racism, discrimination, and intolerance through sport. Finally, Starting Line will provide evidence and programme recommendations, based on a real context, on how sport programmes can leverage positive social change at community level.