Motivate Children from below EU average GDP countries to love swimming

The main scope of the project is to promote the sport of swimming in various levels; overcome the barriers of participation that children and young people face when living in disadvantageous and underprivileged geographical areas in low than average GDP European countries. During the project three transnational meetings took place to discuss all aspects of management, material and guidelines preparation and dissemination. During the project activities the number of participants reached 1.674, mainly aged 8 to 12 years old, while the total number of clubs membership raised to 593 members, 1/3 less than the final target. Also, according to the website and facebook accounts more than 2.430 visitors and 50.040 hits were recorded, including more than 270 likes. That number shows 7.000 visitors when considering all three club’s websites and 4.000 all three clubs' facebook accounts. In addition, three instead of one photo story video was produced to increase dissemination. The mobility workshop, the school campaigns, the 3-day camp, the SWIMwin festival, and conference were the main milestones and achievements of the project.The Mobility Workshop held in parallel with the 2nd meeting to Bucharest aimed to increase the trainers’ swimming knowledge through sharing good practices on coach leadership style that motivates children to swim. Seven academics were engaged which is more than initially planned. After the keynotes speakers’ presentations, the partnership with the support of the academics produced the Guidelines of being an inspiring coach. One meeting with coaches per country had been implemented. The School campaigns ran from April 2017 to June 2018 and more than 1.000 primary school pupils were informed – about the importance and the benefits of swimming in all countries. Brochures (1.030) were distributed to all schools. A number of materials had been prepared additionally the initial project proposal, such as the notebook, the notebook presentation as well as a number of innovative activities held both in and out the classrooms. A lot of effort of the project members was dedicated to schools as being one of the main channels of raising awareness among children, parents and local communities with limited physical and/or financial access to both pools and water.A common action plan concerning the 3 day-camp was prepared and delivered by the coordinator to all partners but each one was free to reorganise the initial plan. The 3-day camp was organised by each partner. All aimed to instil a vision of success and inspire children between 8 and 12 years old to become leaders in the sport – field of swimming. Approximately, more than 300 children participated in this activity and more than 400 parents were informed during the camp indoor and outdoor activities.One of the main channels of project dissemination was the SWIMwin Festival held in Greece. Each country took part in the SWIMwin festival with up to 20 selected swimmers from 8 to 12 years old. Greece encouraged more than 100 swimmers to join the festival and more than 200 invitations for the Conference were distributed. A European or Olympic Medal swimmer from each partner country was the key speaker of the conference. More than 150 young swimmers gained such valuable experience as one European or Olympic Medal swimmer from each partner country was the festival’s guest star telling stories about water safety and swimming techniques and inspiring children in and out the swimming pools. Finally, the SWIMwin Conference summarised and disseminated the project development and results with local, national, and European impact, in order to increase the awareness and motivation at multiple levels. A number of stakeholders from including the Mayor of Naoussa Municipality and the President of Prefecture of Central and West Macedonia of Greece to Parliament assembly representative attended the conference. New collaborations are ready to be implemented.