Social Inclusion Games named 'Good Practice Example’

The European Commission (EC) has lauded the ‘European Social Inclusion Games 2018’ as a ‘Good Practice Example’. Projects that receive such recognition serve as a best practices to other projects in terms of the approach they followed and the way team members collaborated to achieve project goals.

Launched over a decade ago, the Social Inclusion Games are a kind of European-wide inclusive Olympics for people facing exclusion, poverty, homelessness, addiction or other mental illnesses. Grounded on the notion that sport can be an important way of bonding people and cultures, the EC decided to allocate funds to organising the event, with the aim of advancing inclusion and fighting intolerance and discrimination. 

Held in Enschede, the Netherlands, the 2018 edition of the Social Inclusion Games welcomed over 1,700 participants from seven different countries, contesting for medals in over 25 sporting disciplines. These included football, volleyball, basketball, dodgeball, boule, frisbee, badminton, table tennis, bow-shooting, darts and swimming.The event was organised by the Dutch non-profit Humanitas Onder Dak, and has been described by the European Commission’s project management and governance experts as an inspiring success. Delivered with the support of PNO Consultants, a pan-European consulting firm specialised in subsidy-supported projects, the event was larger than its predecessors and well organised, with all major timelines delivered within budget.

Other parties that played a role in hosting the Games were the municipalities of Enschede and Almelo, the Overijssel province, NOC*NSF, and several local sports clubs, companies and volunteers. In addition to sports activities, meet-ups were organised on topics including health, sports and inclusion for professionals and policy-makers who work in healthcare, welfare or sheltered housing.

The next edition of the Social Inclusion Games will take place in 2020 in Berlin, Germany.