A future increasingly focused on the integration of people with disabilities, not only physical but also mental. This is the final goal, certainly rather ambitious, of the European project HOSPITALITY -Holistic Sport Disciplines for People With Intellectual Disability- which sees the UISP Committee Ciriè Settimo Chivasso as a partner together with the Courage Foundation associations – from Bulgaria – Rijeka Sport – from Croatia- and Scout Society -from Romania. Coordinating these realities is the MeetLab association – one of the youngest affiliates of the Territorial Committee – founded 4 years ago with the aim of proposing a new concept of sporting activity, especially to implement the mental well-being connected to it.
A little about this HOSPITALITY based thought imprint, which intends to make the integration of disadvantaged people its strong point through a series of targeted interventions: from promoting participation in unified physical activities of people with intellectual disabilities and personality, implementing through the courses a path of awareness – through mindfulness meditation – that can favor both the physical and psychological well-being of the subjects; the design and implementation of a study that allows to collect data and strengthen a cooperation network between the partners participating in the project, so that the members and associations of each region can exploit the synergies and exchanges produced. An interesting collaboration in this sense has already taken place, at the beginning of last week, between the instructors of MeetLab, of the UISP Committee Ciriè Settimo Chivasso and of Courage Foundation, who met in Castelletto Ticino to work with a group of people with particularly disabilities. serious. “To work better with them, we decided to make some changes to the course we designed at the beginning of 2021, also because it is not possible to be rigid with these subjects, quite the contrary. It is necessary to adapt to their needs, studying each time a method that can allow them to carry out both the part of gentle physical activity and the one dedicated to meditation. Hence, the approach to sport has become a playful and fun proposal, also through the game of Twister. This, in fact, allowed the boys to acquire a greater awareness of their body – left and right hands, as well as feet – which is essential for the moment dedicated to mindfulness, which focused mainly on breathing “explain the instructors. On the basis of this and other experiences, the UISP Ciriè Settimo Chivasso Committee will then have to deal with drafting a Manual of Good Practices – also attached to video output – that can be reproduced at European level, so that everyone can take advantage of what has been learned in the course of this project.
A project that was not without difficulties, since the strict rules imposed by the health emergency have made it difficult for users with disabilities to use the courses. “We also tried to carry out the lessons through the videoconference modality, but we realized that it was a difficult solution, precisely because the screen does not allow us to fully understand the needs of the users. And as found during these months, it is essential to be malleable and to adapt the activity to different situations “conclude the instructors. Precisely for these reasons HOSPITALITY, which was supposed to end in June, I obtained an extension of 6 months: next month a meeting between the partners will take place in Plovid, to further share the experiences acquired so far.