On the occasion of the International German Gymnastics Festival 2009, the ISCA Executive Committee met in Frankfurt to participate in the Conference of the Festival and visit various events that were organized within the framework of this fantastic event.

The ISCA Executive Committee held its meeting on June 6 and 7, deliberating on a number of national and international updates, discussing the global situation of Sport for All and deal with a the internal organisational business.

Read more about the decisions made by ISCA's Executive Committee here. >>>

The MOVE 2009 World Congress on Active Cities: Sport, Health & Citizenship will take place in Copenhagen, Denmark from 21-24 October 2009.

The new MOVE2009 Congress website is now available and features,

Visit MOVE2009 online here and find all relevant information on the congress. We are very much looking forward to seeing you in Copenhagen. www.move2009.org

The MOVE2009 World Congress on Active Cities : Sport, Health and Citizenship will take place from the 21-24 October 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Book your participation in the MOVE2009 World Congress today and make sure to benefit from the preferential congress fee and reduced hotel rates.
Access the online booking here.>>>

Municipalities and health:
rights, citizenship, and integrated local management for development

Argentina will be the site of the "First World Fair of Municipalities and Health: Rights, Citizenship and Integrated Local Management for Development", that will be held from 18 to 21 August  2009 the Coast Salguero Center, Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. Authorities and experts of the numerous countries will participate in the meeting organized by the Ministry of Health of Argentina, with the support of the Pan American Health Organization and the World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO).

Read more here.>>>

President of Sports Union of Slovenia Mr. Miro Ukmar expressed his respect to ISCA initiatives and activities for international understanding of Sport for All and for gathering partners from all of Europe to PATHE.

"Sport for all, recreation and physical education are known to be an established value in today's modern time and space. They can represent and affect our lifestyle, lifelong learning, competition or be solely a simple game. But they can also contribute to a more recognizable identity of an individual, the society or even the state and improve the self-esteem of a child or an adolescent."
Read more. >>>

The European Commission's Health and Consumers DG has set up a new website "Be healthy- be yourself", gathering relevant health information for youth, announcing the July Youth and health conference and promoting discussion through an online blog page. As this Initiative is about the involvement of young people and their organizations in the European Commission's field of activity, ISCA would like to encourage it's members to share information about their youth and health efforts directly on the Youth and Health website or with the ISCA office.
ISCA has so far contributed the health related outcomes and declarations of the European Youth and Sport Forums to the website. The European Commission's Health and Consumers DG is very open to your suggestions and hopes to involve more people in the discussion on the health blog and to make them participate in the Health Competition.

Read more here. >>>

ISCA invites you to participate in the Balkan Youth and Sport Forum 2009 - BYSF ‘09. The forum will gather over 45 participants from across the Balkan region to discuss the role of youth in sport. Built around the current youth agenda in south-east Europe, the forum will put forward its perspectives on the role of youth in sport.

BYSF ‘09 will include the following themes:
    * youth participation,
    * democratic citizenship and
    * non-formal education through sport.

The BYSF ‘09 will take place from the 7th – 13th of September in the capital of Bosnia & Herzegovina, Sarajevo.

Read more and sign-up here.>>>

At the occasion of the PLAY-THE-GAME conference ISCA President, Mogens Kirkeby, confirmed that:
"The Pyramid Sport Model is not valid any more. It does not reflect the reality of sport and it definitely does not describe correctly the inter-linkage between elite sport and grass-root sport.
The three basic fundamental pillars, which are supposed to  preserve the illusion of the pyramid sport model are;

The Forum on Productive Youth Development through Sport in Africa was held from June 16-18, 2009, in Nairobi. The Forum is a joint initiative of the UNOSDP and the Jacobs Foundation in collaboration with the Swiss Academy for Development (SAD) and the Mathare Youth Sports Association (MYSA).  

The Forum brought together more than 70 practitioners from the field of sport and development, and provided them with a space to discuss the potential and limits of sport as a tool for productive youth development.

Extensive coverage of the Forum was made on the International Platform on Sport and Development, and in case you couldn't make it to the Forum, you now have the possibility to view and react to the official recommendations of the Forum , download the key presentations, view the latest photos and even check out videos made during the Forum.

Click on the following link to access this information, and do not hesitate to share your comments online!

The European Commission launched a call for proposals for transnational projects to prepare the ground for a future EU sport programme. The future scheme itself could be worth tens of millions of euros per year. The call for proposals for "preparatory actions in the field of sport" was launched on 15 May and totals €4 million.

The priorities of the call feature:

ISCA is presently exploring the possibilities to submit one or more proposals for this call and welcomes input, interest and suggestions from all ISCA members and stakeholders.

The festival is the largest sports event in Denmark with tournaments, shows and workshops in close to 20 different branches of sport and attracted more than 25,000 Danish participants and a few hundred foreign sportsmen and women.

The festival is all about sports, festivities and togetherness. There will be spectacular shows, open workshops and exciting matches. The recurring spirit is that getting to know other sportsmen and women is more important than winning any of the tournaments.

The festival is organized by Danish Gymnastics and Sports Associations (DGI) and the Danish Shooting Organization (DDS). The history and tradition of the festival stretch back to 1862, the year in which the very first festival took place in Copenhagen, at that time the only sport was shooting.
View the most recent pictures of the festival.>>>

More than 60 handpicked basketball drills will show you ways of creating empowerment among young people on several different levels.

The Basketball Compendium
The latest GAM3 publication is result of this work is an English and Arabic basketball compendium dedicated to basketball coaches working in the field of development. The compendium introduces three levels of empowerment (individual, social, and community) with a series of 13 corresponding Training Themes (leadership, trust, democracy etc.). The drills which are illustrated by drawings and the classic coaching board diagrams each target one or more of the Training Themes making it easy for the coach to build trust or creativity depending on the needs of the local context.

Read more at the SPORTANDDEV platform.>>>
Access the GAM3 Basketball Compendium here.>>>