On May 11, 2009 the Sport and Development Platform holds it next Steering Board meeting in Copenhagen. The Platform is a collaborative initiative supported and governed by a diverse set of stakeholders who are committed to contributing to the field of Sport & Development. The Platform provides a hub for sharing knowledge, building good practice, facilitating coordination and fostering partnerships between and within the different stakeholders.

Mr Poul Hansen, head of Office for Mr. Wilfried Lemke, UN Special Adviser at United Nations Office on Sport for Development and Peace (UNOSDP), will join the Steering Board meeting in Copenhagen as an observer.

The Steering Board consist of representatives from the funding institutions:

NSD is happy to invite to the conference: Sport and Development Initiatives: ´What difference can they make?´
The Danish Network for Sport and Development hereby invites Policy Makers, Grassroots Practitioners, Researchers, Students and Businesses to participate in the NSD Conference, May 12, 2009.
Conference topics:
The conference will address present Sport and Development challenges with a starting point in four key issues:

• From “Sport Plus” to “Plus Sport”
• Measuring Sport and Development
• The Role of Voluntarism in Sport and Development Projects
• New partnerships in Sport and Development

Find the full conference programme and invitation here.

The European Civil Society Platform on Lifelong Learning (EUCIS-LLL) publishes its Manifesto to the European Political Parties before the election in June 2009.

"Non-formal and informal learning are the civil society's contribution to the 'Bank of Knowledge'. Representing the civil society organisations in grass-root sport, we respect the value of non-formal learning. The lifelong non-formal learning is both the 'fuel' of the voluntary based organisations and the sector’s contribution of Human Capital to our societies" says ISCA president, Mogens Kirkeby.

The European Civil Society Platform on Lifelong Learning gathers 19 European networks working in education and training. Together, these organisations cover all sectors of education and training including networks for higher education, vocational education and training, adult education and popular education.
Click here to see the Manifesto.

„Green Champions in Sport and Environment“ is published by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety and the German Olympic Sports Confederation. The booklet contains many examples of good practice in Germany, highlighting a number of innovative measures implemented at large sporting events. The recommendations for action put forward in the guide can be applied by any country.

The guide is aimed at the organizers of large sporting events. It is also directed to national and international sports associations, since those set the framework through the demand for events, through contracts with sponsors and through their competition rules. The guide wishes, in particular, to encourage sports associations to examine how the framework for environmentally favorable large scale sporting events can be further improved. “More green champions in sport require more ecological sports awarding and labeling of events”. This guide offers sport associations practical support and a great deal of advice on the planning of ecological standards.
Read more here.

Physical Activity Towards a Healthier Europe (PATHE) is ISCA's European wide health initiative supported by the Public Health Executive Agency of the European Commission.
 
PATHE Plans for 2009 are very ambitious, having consultation meetings in 13 European countries, making the national action plans, transforming knowledge to action at citizen level and inspiring the Sport for All sector to improve and increase its contribution to creating better and healthier societies.

PATHE upcoming events for May 2009:
DGI Consultation meetings :
DGI – CASPV: Czech Republic,  5. – 7.5.2009
USEP Consultation meetings:
USEP – SALSC: Scotland, 29. – 31.5.2009
SUS Consultation meetings:
SUS - Czech Sokol: Prague, 11. – 12.5.2009
SUS - FIAF: Italy, 27. – 29.5.2009

PATHE is designed to build on the infrastructure of national associations of physical activity, that currently represent over 70 million Europeans. More activities can be find here.

The prevalence of overweight and obesity in childhood has become a key problem of our society. With the new "SAFARI Kids" program, the resources of parents and children for a sustainable prevention of overweight will be strengthened. The combined exercise and nutrition program for the whole family aims a change of behavior in everyday life and thereby opens up new targets for the clubs.
For the course-manual and more information ask pluspunkt-magazin@dtb-online.de

Under the perspective of an integral school (which involves complementary fields such as arts, culture, among others, besides the usual disciplines), sport is not only one more education tool. It is considered an educational process in itself. Sport is one of the strongest educational elements I can choose, both at school and in its complementary activities, as it is clear how children devote attention to it, it is part of the way they deal with ludic, because children want to play, use the body.
Sport must be used in a free process, although with educative and pegagogical methods, compatible with age, social class and the region where children live, it is, it must be inserted in children and teenagers' life context.

Read the whole interview in IFA's bulletin here.

On April 23 - from 3:30 to 5:00 p.m. (GMT -3) - was held the second edition of Virtual Forum "Sport for All" in SESC Pinheiros, Sao Paolo, Brazil, in the presence of Ana Moser, former volleyball athlete of Brazilian national team. She is one of the greatest names in the world volleyball and nowadays Director of the Non-Governmental Institution “Institute Sport Education” – Instituto Esporte Educação – working with sport as tool for the development of future citizens.

With a total audience of 343 participants, 67 live attendances, 276 virtual participants from Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Peru the forum provided an excellent opportunity to learn more about Sport for All and Education through Sport.
Video-recordings will soon be available at: www.sescsp.org.br/forumvirtual

Intercultural competence and foreign language skills are seen as essential preconditions for youth mobility, for the development of international activities and for increased youth participation, one of the key priorities of the Council of Europe’s Directorate of Youth and Sport.

The aim of the programme is to promote intercultural and interreligious dialogue with a special focus on youth work at European level by bringing together young people from different backgrounds and countries.

The language courses are focused on average users of the language and will take place according to the language during summer 2009 in Rabat (Morocco - Arabic), Moscow (Russia - Russian), Istanbul and Trabzon (Turkey - Turkish)
Deadline of the applications depends of the language. Read more here.

On May 8 and 9, Uinone Italiana Sport per Tutti (UISP) and International Sport and Culture Association (ISCA) will co-host a meeting for partners in Sport for All in the Mediterranean area. The meeting will be led by Carlo Balestri (UISP) and ISCA Secretary General Jacob Schouenborg. The thematic focus points of the meeting are young people, social inclusion, work in prisons and environmental policy and the goal is to define future strategies for organisational cooperation in the area.
 
On the same weekend, UISP will host its annual congress with more than 400 delegates participating. Read more here or contact the ISCA office.

The Sport, Education and Training (SET) seminar registration has been closed on May 1, 2009 with total number of 286 applications from all over Europe. This significant number of applications is due to the combination of a highly interesting training course topic “social inclusion and youth participation in and through large-scale sports festivals” and beautiful venue of the event. The final 24 participants will be selected by the beginning of next week and informed via email. We would like to thank to all partners and promoters of the event for this fruitful recruitment process and the great interest in this UMFI-ISCA project.

The European Community's Youth in Action Programme has granted €35.000 to ISCA for general operating costs during the year 2009.  The grant application has been awarded on the basis of the proposal's quality and reflects the maximum possible amount for operating support. This grant from the Youth in Action Programme is administered by the Education, Audiovisual & Culture Executive Agency. 
Information about the Youth in Action Programme can be found here. 

//The project has been funded with support from the European Commission.  This Newsletter reflects only the views of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use, which may be made of the information contained therein. //

In the beginning of April 2009, Nils Eigil Bradtberg (26) joined the ISCA secretariat in the framework of a six months internship.

In 2008, Nils finished his bachelor degree in sport science and psychology and has gathered valuable experience in his project work with integration through sport and teaching in a number of Danish high schools.

Nils will integrate the MOVE2009 congress secretariat and support the organisation of this key event. You can contact Nils at nb@isca-web.org.

Do you want to know more about the International Sport and Culture Association ISCA?

Checkout our presentation video on the ISCA website.
You are most welcome to use the video for presentation purposes or embedding it on your website. For those purposes please find the video on youtube.