On July 3 2022, in the frame of the W4CS4S project, GEA Cooperativa Sociale organized a Multiplier Sport Event (MSE) in cooperation with the Sherwood Festival of Padua and the Polisportiva San Precario.

The Festival and the Sport Association

The Sherwood Festival is a completely independent music and cultural festival that has been held in Padua since the early 1990s, in the historic location of the North of the Euganeo Stadium. The best artists from the national and international scene perform on its two stages, with a focus on the independent scene. But the festival is not just music. In-depth meetings dedicated to social and political issues, book presentations and sports events make this place, which is born and lives for one month a year in a car park, a special place. The festival is possible thanks to the commitment, passion and the collective collaboration of hundreds of activists from the Social Spaces of the North-East, cultural, sporting and social volunteer associations, and the dozens of people who each year answer the call to participate in the success of the festival. Polisportiva San Precario was founded in 2007 with the dream of imagining a sport for all in our territories. It is a bet, a challenge aimed at overturning the official horizon of sport, where the only imperative (as in life) is to win by any means. They say: "We believe it is possible to build a different way of experiencing sport. The benchmarks for playing and winning are respect for the opponent, fairness, and the fight against all discrimination. It is difficult to fight daily against laws and rules that want to regulate the desire to have fun, to compete, to feel good about oneself and others. It is certainly difficult, but we want to try anyway.";

The project

Work for a cause, serve for sport is a 2019 Erasmus+ Sport Collaborative Partnership whose lead partner is the City of Zagreb. The main objective of the project is to strengthen tools and relationships available to volunteers and volunteer organisations. It also promotes participation in the organisation of national and international sport events, with a focus on the issue of inclusiveness of people with disabilities in sport events, promoting inclusion and equal opportunities in sport.

https://www.eusportvolunteers.com/

The Multiplier Sport Event

Focus of the event were the following topics:

• How to include para-sports disciplines in a structural manner within the grassroots sports fabric;
• How to push institutional and federal bodies to support increasingly widespread para- sports practice;
• To know, value and spread the para-sport world; to analyse stimuli, perspectives and barriers from the cultural point of view, to that of accessibility to practices and facilities.

At the centre of the evening were the experiences of the sport we love most. The sport that unites and generates value. The sport of all and for all.

Our guests and speakers

• Marco Visentin Padua Mixed Ability Rugby Facilitator
• Ricardo Bego Padua Mixed Ability Rugby Player
• Davide Brotto Founder and Sports Director of the CUS Padua Wheelchair Basketball Team
• Alice Bruni GEA Coop Sociale, Project Partner

And, we had the video contribution of:

• Eva Ceccatelli Paralympic captain of the national sitting volleyball team, who opened a window that is often ajar on Paralympic sport, in particular sitting volleyball, emphasising how even today in the organisation of sporting events these sports are often marginalised and not placed alongside the sports we all know.

A total of 35 people directly participated in the event, not counting indirect participants in the festival.