PI.PO (Ping Pong Without Frontiers) is an European project that sees Sport Senza Frontiere Onlus as the leader, with partners in four European countries, kicks off and aims to activate an international program of social support for children in difficult situations, through practice of Table Tennis. The project, based on field trials in Italy, Slovakia, Slovenia and Bulgaria, is an innovative tool for promoting inclusion and positive sociality, strengthening the sense of well-being in the community to which it belongs.The beneficiaries of the project are children and young people who, due to a condition of social fragility and socio-economic problems, have difficulties in accessing sport. Pi.Po intends to demonstrate that sports can really contribute to social inclusion by being a formidable tool for expanding one’s social world and interacting with each other. The objectives of the project are manifold:First of all, to transfer all the experiences acquired locally on a transnational scale; establish solid cooperation and a specific network of partners interested in locally implementing Table Tennis Workshops to promote social inclusion, especially among young people and children from areas of hardship. In other words, PI.PO. aims to activate an international social support program for minors in difficulty, using Table Tennis as an innovative tool for inclusion and to develop positive sociability, personal and collective well-being and strengthening the sense of community.
To these primary objectives, there are others such as: establishing a Sport Senza Frontiere Observatory for Social Inclusion, promoting an intra-European network for the exchange of good practices, strengthening the social and educational skills of educators, coaches, operators in the field; strengthen the social and educational skills of children; promoting a common strategy between partners and stakeholders through the creation of Table Tennis Laboratories and supporting the mobility of children and their educators. “For years – explains Alessandro Tappa, president of Sport Senza Frontiere Onlus – we have been experimenting the potential of table tennis in the field of the recovery of juvenile distress in contexts of social, economic and educational difficulties. This project allows us to reach many young people in 4 European countries and to build the foundations for a model to be exported. We aim to involve an increasing number of young people, to disseminate greater knowledge of the value of this practice which, thanks to simplicity, low costs, high level of attraction and fun, can attract anyone, and encourage debate at various levels to arouse awareness throughout Europe “.
The partners of the project are: ASD Tennistavolo Senigallia (IT); Dia-Sport Association (DS) – Сдружение ДИА–СПОРТ (Bulgaria); ADEL – Association for Development, Education and Labour (Slovacchia); ZAVOD APGA (Slovenia).
The project will last 2 years. Providing laboratory training (at a distance in the first phase) and training for sports educators up to the implementation of 5 experimental Ping-Pong laboratories for children with the aim of supporting the implementation of an experimental protocol for the social inclusion in sport.
