Three partner organisations from Austria and Germany work together in the INIS project. The lead partner is the MOI Event der Lebenshilfen Soziale Dienste GmbH (Styria, Austria), and the project partners are Sportbündel from Kapfenberg (Styria, Austria) and TSG Hatten-Sandkrug(Lower Saxony, Germany), two well-established sports clubs.
MOI – Move on to inclusion
Since 2017, the project “Move on to inclusion” (MOI) has consistently and continuously been active in the sports landscape, showing the necessary structures and processes for the implementation of inclusive sports offers and promoting their implementation. Together with the three sports umbrella organisations and the cooperation partner Special Olympics Austria as well as sports clubs in mass sports, the vision of opening up sport as a social space for all and promoting social interaction will be developed.
The MOI Sport project can be called the “missing link” between people with disabilities interested in sports, organised sports and facilities for people with disabilities. The second project line, MOI Event, has recently been implemented: People with disabilities are trained as sports management assistants, support the organisation of sports events and help to make sports events more inclusive. For precisely this MOI Event project line, the participation in INIS is an excellent extension of the project activities – there are various synergy effects for the daily work. Located in Graz, MOI has been working on a supra-regional and Styrian level since 2022 in order to make the entire sports landscape more inclusive step by step with both MOI Sport and MOI Event. These projects became possible thanks to funding from the Ministry of Sport.
The lead partner for MOI is Lebenshilfe Soziale Dienste GmbH (LHSD), a modern social service provider that currently employs over 1.000 people and supports a wide range of heterogeneous target groups and tasks in shaping a successful life. With its developments and social innovations, the LH-SD provides contemporary ideas that offer answers to current challenges such as psychosocial stress and personal problems of people and their relatives in all situations of life. General human rights and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities always form the basis of the work. A basis which, in Article 30 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, calls for the equal participation of persons with disabilities in recreational, leisure and sports activities, thus closing the circle to MOI.
Sportbündel
Das Sportbündel…gemeinsam packen wir´s…is a non-profit association for athletes with special mobility needs.
Our mission is to give people access to sport, to support them in their sporting activities and to organise and carry out regular training programmes in a wide range of sports.
Athletes are…
People with mental and/or physical disabilities, children and young people with developmental deficits and/or socio-economic disadvantages, people with psychological problems or illnesses as well as people with a migration background.
Sportbündel bundles strengths – by experiencing and talking about it together!
The aim is to give all people equal opportunities to train actively in groups. The athletes’ strengths are mobilised through the development of their sporting talents, the strengthening of social skills and the temporary inclusion in the regional community. There is no pressure to perform – the main aim is to increase the desire to move as well as social and respectful togetherness. Diversity allows us to learn from each other, fears and boundaries can be overcome in a protected setting. Our major concern is looking outward, with the possibility of integration into other regional clubs.
Sportbündel connects – the network
In order to be able to react as flexibly as possible to the respective wishes of the athletes, long-term strategic alliances are very important to us. Networking with different institutions, clubs and regional offers is the cornerstone for a successful implementation and embedding in sports. The ÖZIV BG: Bruck-Kapfenberg-Mürzzuschlag has been a partner of Sportbündel for many years and we – as part of this district group – feel well strengthened regionally through our membership. We “cross-fertilise” each other, are in constant exchange and organise joint events, such as the Integra Cup.
The Sportbündel range:
- Regular training in the different sports (14 sports in total)
- Participation in and organisation of events/tournaments (Special Olympics Austria, the club´s own and self-organised events, accompaniment in regional tournaments and events, regional events INCLUSIVE)
- Accompanied gymnastics lessons in kindergartens and special schools as well as schools with integration classes
- Network /cooperation with clubs, schools and institutions in the form of themed sports days, integration projects…
- Active camps and training camps (holiday activities)
- Specially designed physical activity modules for institutions caring for people with special physical activity needs
- Knowledge transfer/exchange of experience in the form of workshops and further training courses
- Raising awareness, counselling and projects
TSG Hatten-Sandkrug
TSG Hatten-Sandkrug e.V. is the largest multi-discipline sports club in the Oldenburg district with currently 2500 members organised in 18 departments. The club also has its own health studio with sauna and courses. The club has been awarded the “Sport pro Gesundheit” (Sport for Health) seal by the DOSB, recognising health-oriented sporting activities. In addition, TSG Hatten-Sandkrug e.V. is a member of the Disabled Sports Association of Lower Saxony e.V.. Therefore it is also authorised to offer rehabilitation sports. The sports centre is also barrier-free.
In 2015, we began to gain initial experience in working with people with disabilities with the inclusion project “MITEINANDERs”, which is funded by Aktion Mensch. We have succeeded in anchoring the topic of inclusion in our sports club and implementing many pragmatic application offers. A strong network, a pool of qualified trainers and inclusive sporting activities such as table tennis, football and the Heidelberg Ball School have been established. Larger inclusive sports events are also organised and carried out by us. In 2020, we combined forces with the Hatten Municipality and the Kreissportbund Landkreis Oldenburg e.V. (Oldenburg District Sports Association) and started the inclusion project “Hatten Inklusiv” (Hatten Inclusive) to further expand what has already been achieved. Here, people with disabilities are to be involved in the development of inclusive offers from the very beginning.
