Get Sporty, Stay Healthy

Sport and physical activity play a fundamental role in the life of every person. However, data at European level revealing physical inactivity in more than half of Union citizens. So, the training of professionals in the field of health and sport is crucial because, as the Commission underlines in the same White Book, sports organizations are encouraged, by virtue of their "mediation" potential, to undertake activities to promote physical activity and sport for the benefit of health and to review the effectiveness of their methods and their activities. The project “Get Sporty, Stay Healthy”, lasted 18 months with four Transnational Meetings, aimed to:• promote a healthy lifestyle through the mobilization and the training of those who trains and work in the sector. The objective of our project was to raise people’s awareness about the value of physical activity to health and to promote an healthy lifestyle through sport and physical activity through the mobilization of non-profit sports and health organizations, in order to provide them with further knowledge and skills to be able to offer innovative and efficient services.In specific, the project, aimed to:• training formers: train the trainers, in order to enhance their key skills and develop transversal and multi-sectoral skills. Outline the formation of a professional figure in a way complementary to those of others in an integrated system. Stimulate and inspire research to solve the problem inherent in the lack of physical activity of people, encouraging solutions aimed at promoting innovative responses to the phenomenon in different areas through an integrated strategic approach;• promote a culture of sport and encourage participation in sport and physical activity – understanding current barriers to participation in sport: promote a culture of sport and health in society and a greater awareness of their importance in everyone’s life, even thanks to volunteers activity in sport. Lead to healthy lifestyles aimed at reducing inactivity and safeguarding the health of citizens of all age group;• strengthening cooperation between sports organizations and health organizations: promote and implement a synergy, a collaboration of networks between different sectors but complementary to sport and healthy lifestyle. Expanding the range and quality of services and spaces offered to the population in order to integrate sport and health.Health workers, coaches, psychologists, and trainers who work in the same context can enrich themselves in terms of multisectoral skills and, moreover, can offer a complete wellness service to the person who requests their help. We believe that being staffed with differentiated personnel and having a mix of skills is a great value at a professional level and for an efficient provision of personal services. This project, then, met with the need to internationalize the scope of action of the participating organizations through collaboration with European partners and through the future availability of a range of innovative services that will increase participation in sport and physical activity of the population in an international panorama. The exchange of good practices and the training between trainers realised in the project were aimed to meet the incessant need for knowledge, as well as the development and updating of technical and transversal skills.In addition, a multicultural strategic confrontation was helpful for the associations to understand and solve the problem on how to more effectively convey the value of sport and physical activity in order to operate within its territorial context in a productive and socio-integrated way. Participating organizations, in the end, satisfied their need for greater knowledge on how Erasmus plus works, others will implement it, with the common aim of setting up a network to elaborate future projects with the participation of diversified subjects.