On 10 and 13 May 2023, the University of Barcelona (UB) is organising two days of a training seminar at the Mundet Campus for staff of organisations that work on refugee and asylum issues. This seminar is also aimed at refugees and asylum seekers who want to improve their physical and psychological well-being, as well as UB students who want to train in this subject.
The aim of this seminar is twofold. The first is to show professionals the methodology of the UB’s Socio-Sports Meetings so they can transfer it to their associations. The second is for refugees and asylum seekers to experience the benefits of socio-sports meetings.
Socio-Sports Meetings are a socio-educational intervention model developed by the UB through the Faculty of Education since 1993. This model is based on experiential learning through physical and sports activity with the aim of facilitating the social inclusion of people in a situation of exclusion or at risk of exclusion in their community.
To do so, the participants must cooperate in motor-skill games to achieve different objectives. These games leave aside the competitive aspects of most sports to serve as a means of interaction that facilitates communication, interrelation and socialisation between culturally different groups.
The UB’s Socio-Sports Meetings have been replicated in other universities in Catalonia, elsewhere in Spain and in other countries in Central and South America, such as Mexico, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Cuba. With these training sessions, the University of Barcelona wants to transfer its experience in this field, not only to other universities, but to organisations that work on refugee and asylum issues.
The seminar is held as part of the COMMUNITY project, implemented by the UB in collaboration with Fundación Solidaritat UB and with funding from the European Union. The project promotes the social inclusion of refugees or asylum seekers in their host community, using sport to confront racism, discrimination and xenophobia while facilitating their physical and psychological well-being.
Registration and more information on the website of the second seminar on training trainers in socio-educational intervention for the social inclusion of refugees through sport.
