It is very common to hear and see the involvement of minorities and people with migration background in summer sport especially football – albeit accompanying exclusion and discriminatory problems. The story is different when it comes to winter sports. This is the case at hobby, amateur and professional levels.
This multipliers’ seminar is the first of its kind in Europe to address the issue of minority involvement in winter sports and the question of the exclusion of traditional immigrant communities, with a focus on the Alpine region and Scandinavia. It will touch on questions of stereotypes and how winter sports can attract and recruit young talents from migrant communities.
The seminar is an initiative by an independent group of organisations a day before the opening of the Winter Youth Olympic Games (WYOG) 2012 in Innsbruck – which take place for the very first time. The seminar will be attended by youth coaches and workers, sport administrators, and other multipliers and stakeholders in sports. This meeting is part of the EU co-funded “Sport Inclusion Network (SPIN) – Involving migrants in mainstream sport institutions” (SPIN Project) which is designed to promote and share good practices across Europe on inclusion and involvement of migrants and other third-country nationals (including refugees) through and in mainstream sport.
The project aims to raise awareness about the potential positive role of sport in terms of social inclusion of migrants and intercultural dialogue. This seminar is going to use this window of opportunity to discuss the issue of the under-representation and absence of immigrants in some of the traditional winter sports and the uniting, intercultural power of sports.
Practical Approach
Among others, the main objectives of the seminar are to raise awareness on the problems of exclusion and ethnic discrimination in European sport and to foster equal rights in sport, to promote dialogue between various sport institutions and federations, migrant sport organisations and public authorities in order to make full use of the potential integrative and intercultural power of winter sports for young migrants and ethnic minorities, and to make mainstream sport institutions (clubs, associations, federations) more accessible and open to the needs and aspirations of young members of migrant communities.
Topics of the two parallel Workshops will be:
- Status quo of initiatives to involve migrants in winter sport
- Encouraging migrants and minorities to patronise winter sport – an effective participatory strategy
Call for Seminar Participation
Sport stakeholders including clubs, associations, supporters, players’ unions and athletes, ethnic minority and migrant organisations, NGOs, grass-root projects, local authorities, youth and social workers and other interested parties are kindly invited to Innsbruck for attending the seminar.
Participants are required to register for the seminar until 23rd December 2011. We will confirm your place in the conference as soon as possible. Places are limited.
Participation is free (no fee). Lunch and coffee breaks are included. Please note that participants will have to cover their own travel and hotel costs. The organisers only cover the expenses of the speakers.
Please complete the Registration Form, which can be downloaded here:
www.footballforequality.org/fileadmin/mediapool/pdf/spin/SPIN-Multiplier-Seminar-Registration_Form.doc
Return the completed form to engleitner[at]vidc.org or Fax 0043 1 71133594 – 73
Download the Drafted Seminar Programme from here:
www.footballforequality.org/fileadmin/mediapool/pdf/spin/SPIN-Multiplier-Seminar-Drafted_Programme.pdf
An Outline providing background information on the conference can be downloaded from here:www.footballforequality.org/fileadmin/mediapool/pdf/spin/SPIN-Multiplier-Seminar_Background.pdf
Contact
Vienna Institute for International Dialogue and Cooperation (vidc)
Dr. Bella Bello Bitugu
Möllwaldplatz 5/3
A-1040 Vienna, Austria
e-mail: Bitugu[at]vidc.org
Tel. +43 1 7133594 – 27 or +43 650 6831842
Fax +43 1 7133594 – 73