Starting from March 7th 2024, 31 people from different countries dove into workshops and physical activities based on Education Through Sport (ETS) and the Outsport method. The first MESIS Capacity Building Session finally took place in Rome, in the Ostia Municipality, organized by AICS with the support of AiCS Roma (Local Committee).

20 participants – coaches, PE teachers, youth workers, 4 trainers, 3 observers (job-shadowing trainers), volunteers and staff members got busy with an intensive 3-day session.

The program addressed the importance of sport as a tool for human rights education and social competences development among young students and athletes.

The Outsport method

The Outsport method applies Education Through Sport to LGBTQIA+ inclusion. It has been recently recognized by the WHO and focuses on discrimination based on SOGIESC issues (Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Gender Expression and Sexual Characteristics).

Participants attended workshops related to their personal understanding of discrimination in sport, knowledge about SOGIESC topics and ETS activity.

The practices on the field focused on several activities, from drawing to running, from frisbee games to other interactive games based on special rules.

The ETS “golden rules”

Activities met the ETS “golden rules”:

• Clear learning objectives;
• Well selected physical activity/sport experience;
• Adequate debriefing.

Education through sport is indeed based on using experiential learning as part of Human Rights Education. It works on attitudes, skills and values by leveraging on the emotional side. It become easier to build knowledge about human-rights related topics, in this case SOGIESC.

The MESIS Capacity Building in Rome is part of a broader process of continuous learning and competence building, involving trainers, learners, training designers and host organizations.

Therefore, the trainers team formed in Sofia by Gergana Cholakova, Angelica Saenz and Andrea Giuliano during the MESIS training of trainers implemented by Bilitis in July 2023, designed and ran the program in Rome. Senior trainer László Földi was also present to support the process.

Next CBS Session

Observers Michele Mommi, Daniel Simões, Marta Pujols Riu, from EGLSF and host organizations of the upcoming CBS in Ljubljana and Lisbon, OIS and GCP, were attending in Rome to analyze the process and improve the organization of their own sessions.

Project Manager and local host Rosario Coco collected feedback and suggestions on how to organize spaces and facilities and shared then with project partners to boost the follow up steps.

Interested? follow us on our social media (FB, IG and X, @outsporteu) or join our e-learning community on Telegram. Info: [email protected]

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