“WE PLAY TOGETHER!”
This year On October 24-26, a ten-person delegation of Latvian representatives (Valmiera Olympic Center, Valmiera district, Latvian Sports Federation Council, Latvian Table Tennis Federation, coaches and students) went to Estonia, where they participated in the international project “We Play Together!”. The aim of the project is to promote the social inclusion of socially vulnerable children and young people, especially those who have fled Ukraine, in the local society in the Baltic and Polish region with the help of sports.
Participants from Poland, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania spent two days trying to find common solutions that could be implemented in all four countries.
The uniqueness of the project is simultaneous activities for separate groups of participants.
FIRST GROUP:
Project partners and managers of different organizations from different countries. While getting to know and presenting the represented organizations, the group members tried to find activities that would be the most effective and meaningful in implementing the project’s goals. They also analyzed the already proposed ideas, participated in discussions, looked for compromises.
SECOND GROUP:
The trainers were invited to observe the activity model of the project organizers (Estonian organization “SPIN”), delve into the specifics of their work and share their experience in working with youth in their countries.
THIRD GROUP:
Young people, not only from the countries representing the project, but also from Ukraine. They had to refine and plan the activities and ideas that they will implement during the joint sports festival in the summer of 2023 in Tallinn.
ROLEMODEL IN THE INDUSTRY
The organization “SPIN” made the biggest impression. “SPIN” is a sports-based and scientifically proven effective youth development program with a unique model in Estonia. The purpose of this program is to develop and strengthen the social and self-management skills of the young people involved in it and to bring joy to young people through sports. SPIN program sessions are held three times a week and include soccer training and workshops specifically designed for the program to develop social and self-management skills. Young people are guided by a professional top trainer and a life skills coach, who is a youth worker who works with young people both in a team and individually. The duration of the lessons is 1.5 hours.
That’s why it was interesting and curious to see how they work with young people, to hear what challenges they face and what we can learn from them, because no such program is available in Latvia or Poland. While visiting teams around Tallinn, we participated in training, sports and life skills tasks together with local young people. The meeting was very interesting, inspiring and motivating to create such a program!