Young explorers re-discover local communities through orienteering

Background ORIENT stems from the idea of bringing together different social and cultural groups at risk of social exclusion through orienteering, a particular grassroot sport, which have been shown to play a key role in building communities and creating more inclusive societies. Through a multi-stakeholder approach, ORIENT strengthens social ties at community level, while creating the circumstances for practicing outdoor activities and promoting knowledge of the local contexts by exploration and teamwork. Objectives Promoting social inclusion and participation of vulnerable young people at community level by using orienteering as a multi-goal activity in Italy, Greece, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria and Austria; Enhancing sport trainers’, and civil society organization workers abilities to foster social inclusion in the local community through orienteering as a grassroot sport;Raising awareness among local communities, stakeholders and policy-makers of the value of sport as a tool for inclusion. Implementation ORIENT partners conducted a research on the use of orienteering for social inclusion. Partners developed a training curriculum for sports trainers and CSO workers on how to foster community building and organize orienteering mapping activities; and a toolbox with rules, tools, a kit and techniques for young people to conduct co-creation workshops of orienteering routes and an outdoor contest. At the end, a Manifesto for policy-makers on the potential of orienteering was produced. Achievements ORIENT produced the ORIENT Anthology, a collection of inspiring good practices, tools and methodologies; it trained more than 60 trainers & CSO workers per country through the ORIENT Curriculum; it engaged more than 200 young people through the GEARS & IDEAS Toolbox on co-creation mapping workshops and an orienteering context; it produced the ORIENT Compendium with 5 national orienteering routes and raised awareness on the potential of orienteering to 16 policy-makers through the ORIENT Manifest