Fencing for social inclusion, fence for you

It was very gratifying to see that our clubs had obtained funding in a call as important as Erasmus+. In January 2018, we followed online the meeting in Brussels where different aspects of the management of the Erasmus+ project were explained. The experience was very fruitful, as we received a lot of information and advice to successfully carry out all phases of the project. At the beginning of the project we prepared a contract, in agreement with our partners, so that everyone was clear about their rights and duties during the development of the project and the economic amounts to be received and the periods established for the justification of expenses and collections. We also designed a logo to identify the project and created a website to publicize both the objectives we pursued with the project and all the activities that were being developed thanks to the support of the Erasmus+ program. The next step was the design of a programme of structured activities in the different countries of the project partners that will help us to develop the objectives we had set in the project: to promote fencing sport and its benefits by exchanging practices, techniques and experiences in social inclusion, equal opportunities, increase of self-esteem and integration of persons with different backgrounds. We carried out the first of the meetings between partners by videoconference, where we agreed on the main activities we were going to develop and the approximate dates of them, as well as explaining administrative and management aspects of the project. In the meeting we also agreed on the first visit between the partners that took place in Göteborg during the month of February.In the months of February, September and November the partners held transnational meetings in different European cities (Göteborg, Krakow and Valencia) and we could live some very rewarding days for the great experience involved in knowing the organization and development of the various clubs, as well as their techniques and experiences in teaching fencing and activities and networks of collaboration with institutions that had established.We took advantage of all the meetings to explain administrative procedures and delivery of documentation that has gone from the development during the project and for the preparation of the guide that we have elaborated and presented during the final conference, in which we made a detailed presentation of the project and our partners made a practical class for all attendees to our event on the different disciplines of fencing practiced.In the course of the year we have carried out different activities that we detail in our web page, of formative and social scope (including workshops of formation for the instructors of fencing) and we have opened the fencing to spaces with which until now we did not have knowledge that it had collaborated, giving beginning to the establishment and strengthening of new networks in the associative fabric with institutions LGTBI, Associations of disabled people, Associations of people in risk of social exclusion, associations of historical fencing and public institutions of the different countries in which we have developed the Project.During this year of work on the FENCE4U project, the partners have met constantly with the coordinating and operating bodies of the different project partners to discuss and agree on the procedures to be followed during the FENCE4U project.We have also established links with our partners and other institutions during the process of preparation and execution of the activities carried out. It has been a year of much work; with difficulties in the way of those that we have learned for future projects. It has taken up a lot of time for all of us who have participated, but the final evaluations of all the participants, members of clubs, associations and collaborating entities and people who have participated in the project have been very positive.