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Conference report

Roma – Talents – Opportunities

Sports and social advancement for active European citizenship

The objective of the 4-day international conference was to launch a constructive discourse about strengthening European civil society in innovative ways by using the integrative power of sports. The participants of the conference were European civil organisations who work with disadvantaged social groups.

The main motive of the event was football and sports as potential tools of social advancement and civil integration. Best practices were presented and analysed at the workshop to find out how these projects and programmes could be applied in countries of various social, political and religious backgrounds. In the conference-planning period, the concept of being a European citizen among stigmatised, socially disadvantaged groups was given extra emphasis.

The programme of the conference was formed to facilitate intense and task-oriented dialogue among the participants. At the location of the discussions, we also organised a sports workshop for the target group where young participants had a chance to get to know each other and learn about foreign countries/cultures, the concept of European citizenship and its peculiarities, as well as opportunities of being the citizens of Europe in an active, fun way.

The topics of the conference and the programme itself are the results of a well-founded research, and participating partners are the European experts of the field. The synergy of theoretical and practical sessions resulted in strong feedback for the experts who might use this material to create professional reports for the wider public. Participating youngsters will continue to spread the word of the international event and the idea of European citizenship personally in their home communities, supported by the DVD produced about this event and the dedicated website at http://www.footballtalent.eu.

Objectives

To meet these general objectives, the topics of the conference, the moderated discussions of the workshops and the creation of the DVD that communicates the values of the conference were preceded by thorough professional research. We assessed the activities of European organisations that utilise sports as a tool against discrimination, enhancing integration, or facilitating the advancement of socially disadvantaged groups. It is a great result of the preparation work that the number of participating countries increased from the original 3 to 8, representing organisations that work with great dedication, and have valuable experience.

We analysed the issues of being European citizens and the peculiarities of various countries in connection with the difficulties that arose during the sports activities of the Roma population. The issue of identity played a larger role than we expected, since our target group has a triple identity – belonging to the Roma people, being the citizens of their home countries, and also being European citizens. It is not clear if they enjoy the advantages of this situation or suffer from the disadvantages – at the conference, it was our goal was to highlight potential advantages.

Even in 21^st century Europe, the Roma population encounters stigmatisation and discrimination in the mainstream society, reported by the representatives of all participating countries. The programmes that the organisations work on, and sports in particular, enable them to show their values and potential. These civil organisations struggle for basic European values such as the ideal of equal treatment, against discrimination of all kind, whether based on ethnicity, gender, faith, or social standing.

During the conference, organisations exchanged experiences, built relationship that they can develop further, and improve their own programmes by taking home and using the knowledge and different aspects gained at the conference.

In addition to offering an opportunity for organisations to build – or establish the basis of – international relationships, this conference opened the way to work jointly as partner organisations in their own country (for example, 2 Romanian organisations, which did not have a relationship preceding the conference). As the example shows, these organisations needed to attend a European event to find each other.

The programme achieved its original objectives – and met some additional goals regarding variety and results.

Impact

1. By bringing together organisations who utilise sports, we managed to set common goals that can be achieved more efficiently by networking and making efforts together at the European Union level; these are as follows:

• There is a need for dedicated sports programmes for the Roma (i.e., social groups facing discrimination);
• It is necessary to utilise sports not only as anti-racist initiatives, but also as a tool to overcome social issues due to discrimination;
• The positive effects of regular sports activities should be utilised to facilitate social mobility;
• We need to enhance equal-opportunity awareness among sports associations and sports professionals;
• To achieve this goal, there is a need for clear interpretation of European guidelines in the field of sports;
• A widespread cooperation is needed where organisations, sports and social policy makers, sports federations, and the trainers of athletes and future educators work together at both local and international levels.

1. Participating organisations could learn about the strength and weaknesses of current practices, and got information about the social programmes of international sports federations.
2. Participating organisations got information about the opportunity to join the FARE (Football Against Racism in Europe) association. FARE fights through football against all forms of discrimination in football: in the stadium, on the pitch, in the changing room, at the training ground, in the office and classroom; by fans, players, managers, coaches, administrators or educators.
3. Knowledge gained at the conference and possible solutions to problems will be utilised and made available to the membership and target group of the participating organisations.
4. Representatives of the organisations will spread the concept of being European citizens, as well as the chance to re-interpret their identity within their target group.
5. An agreement was made between the participants about the formation of the “Roma Tehetségsegítő Tanács” (Roma Talent Support Council), with the necessary framework provided by the Hungarian Genius Programme.
6. A cooperation agreement was made between the Department of Social Sciences, Faculty of Physical Education and Sport Sciences of Semmelweis University and the Polgár Foundation to help the work of the EU Working Group “Social Inclusion and Equal Opportunities in Sport” with practical experience and involve a wide range of stakeholders in this work, including the participants of the conference.

The objectives:

• exchange of best practices, sharing experiences
• development of mechanisms for interpretation, analysis and evaluation in order to assist the adoption of best practices.

More videos and articles about the workshop could be found at the press follow-up.