BOSS Meeting WP 3.2

26-27 November 2018

Paris- Union Nationale des Centres de Plein Air (UCPA)

Grant Agreement 2016-3225 / 001-001

Topic of the meeting: A 3.2 Selection of case studies

 

Present By Skype/phone
Francois Beauchard (CREPS)

Antoine Le Bellec (CREPS)

Maxine Gregory (SHU)

Barbara Eigenschenk (TUM)

Laure Dubos (UCPA)

Adrien Forestier (UCPA)

Petar Iankov (NSA)

Mike Mc Clure (SNI)

Garish Ramchandani (SHU)

Eduard Ingles Yuba (INEFC)

Barbara Chiappa (RL)

 

 

Francois Beauchard and Antoine Le Bellec welcomed everyone to the meeting and the meeting was opened. The group thanked the UCPA for hosting this meeting in its offices.

Prior to the meeting in Paris, partners had been sent a document that highlighted the project selection criteria as well as the application forms from project leaders.

Day 1

57 application forms from 11 partners and one international proposal from Finland had been submitted via the BOSS partners. This showed an excellent engagement and appetite to showcase social value. In addition, each of the partners had been asked to rank the projects that they had proposed.

The group’s work began by discussing the system and the criteria for selecting the 12 project representative projects (case studies) to participate in the training course. Two approaches to selection were presented:

  1. A statistical evaluation system proposed by the National Sports Academy
  2. A scoring system based on the ranking proposed by the partners, thereby creating a broad national representation.

The second approach was chosen for the selection procedure. It was also agreed to look beyond this national representation to consider the variety of sports activities and the range of target groups.

When discussing the application forms it was noted that all of the proposed projects were of high quality and had interesting local specifics.

Several subgroups of projects were noted:

First group:

  • National and regional projects

 

Second group:

  • Single and multi-sports activities

Third group – according to type of sports:

  • Water sports
  • Mountain sports
  • Winter mountains sports
  • Summer sports
  • Mountain bike
  • Horse riding

Fourth Group – according to the duration:

  • short (for two to three days)
  • prolonged (from one week to longer)

Fifth group – by age:

  • children
  • adolescents
  • adults
  • retirees or third age

Sixth Group – other target groups:

  • people with disabilities
  • people with antisocial behaviour
  • unemployed
  • emigrants
  • veterans, military
  • people involved in the professional training of experts for conducting outdoor activities

Seventh group – according to venue:

  • programs in City environment, parks and gardens
  • programs in a natural environment

Eighth group:

  • programs that are conducted with the help of instructors
  • those which are carried out independently

After reviewing the proposed projects, it was agreed that the adopted approach of using the national ranking was appropriate. The second element to the selection process involved ensuring that there was a range of activities, target groups and duration. Where there were similarities and duplication between nations with similar projects, the projects ranked second, third and fourth were reviewed.

 

To ensure that there was clarity the partners who were not represented at the meeting were contacted via Skype and mobile phone for further information and their views.

Finally the potential for the projects to have the capacity to calculate the social benefits was discussed. To assist with this element one of the experts (a representative of Sheffield University) who is scheduled to deliver the training course was contacted by phone for their views.

The 12 projects selected were as follows:

  1. Battle Back – UK

The project has three important factors – inclusion of multiple sports activities, broad national representation and a specific group of participants (military and veterans). The program was developed for the military but also can be used for individuals suffering from trauma, aggressive behaviour etc.

  1. En passant par la montagne – France

This project includes Alpinism, Climbing and Hiking and has a large number of participants. It targets people who do not usually have access to the mountains (disadvantaged young people, people with disabilities and people with antisocial tendancies).

  1. Asociación Play and Train – Spain

The sports that the project offers are skiing and snowboarding, cycling and surfing and these provided year-round activities. The project involves more than 600 participants each year, and it is oriented towards people with disabilities.

  1. Course outdoor sports in NSA – Bulgaria

The project involves more than 1,500 each year and the activities are oriented to a range of both winter and summer sports. The winter sports were undertaken in the mountains while the summer ones were water based. These courses included people with disabilities.

  1. Step by step. Trekking as a tool of social inclusion – Italy

This project targeted a number of specific groups and aims to support fragile young people and disabled people through trekking activities and integrate them at community level. The project is year-round and involves over 500 participants per year.

  1. Nautical in Schools – Curriculum program of nautical sports – Portugal

The project is among the selected projects as it affects a large number of participants – 2200 per year, encompassing people from areas of high social need, people with disabilities, migrants and people from black or minority ethnic groups. This is a wide range of participants involved in surfing, canoeing, rowing and sailing classes.

  1. British Cycling MTB Leadership Social Value Research Project – UK

This project’ aim is to provide off-road cycling opportunities to new people especially those from hard to reach groups who do not currently take part in physical activity in the outdoors. The number of participants is 98,000 per year, which gives it a significant leverage over other proposed projects. The project has no restrictions on the participants and is open to all.

  1. Parkwalk – UK

This project encourages people who do no physical activity to join in with runners to complete a 5k walk every Saturday. It empowers local people to participate in walking activities to improve, physical, mental and social wellbeing and to make them more active. The number of participants is over 1000 people per year and is open to all.

  1. Mediation with horses – France

The specific equestrian activities of this project made it interesting as it is aimed at people with disabilities, specific health conditions and from areas of high social need. Approximately 40 people per week are involved in the project, which gives a satisfactory number of people to study.

  1. Row the Erne – Northern Ireland

The project provides opportunities for people to participate in rowing in traditional boats, and involves about 200 people. The lessons are held weekly and are open to all.

  1. E5 crossing the Alps – European hiking trail (Oberstdorf–Meran) – Germany

This project involves a one week long trekking trip in the Alps. It also involves volunteer effort in terms of maintaining the hiking trail for individual use and multi day hiking trips. It is open to all.

  1. Summer and winter camps – France

These summer and winter camps provide outdoors activities to children and teenagers. They can offer multi-sport or one main activity to develop skills. The objectives are improving autonomy, self-organization in a group (especially for teenagers), enjoying collective activities and developing environmental consciousness. Young people with disabilities can also be involved in these camps and this promoted inclusion.

 

Day 2

First session

At this meeting there was much discussion about the methodology for the study of the 12 selected projects. What surveys will be used, and what tools will be developed? How will the outputs from WP2 be implemented to the various projects under WP3? There was also some discussion on how the results of one project could be compared with those of another project?

Second session

At this meeting, the date of the training and the procedure for informing the selected projects were discussed.

The training was decided to be held on 11 – 13th March 2019 in Paris.

The need for translation during the training was discussed and a request to project managers to send information on which languages translation is needed.

There was further discussion about the future steps for organizing the training, as well as selecting the questions and survey. It was decided that these would be discussed through Skype meetings in December and January.

It was agreed that a letter to the leaders of the non-selected projects should be prepared to ask for their approval for information about their project to be published on the BOSS project’s website.