Sport is important for children physical well-being but also for their social and psychological development. Indeed, through sport children can learn important values as tolerance or fair-play and sport activities can contribute to their social inclusion, education and personal development.

Research showed that children can experience various forms of violence in sport that can lead to serious consequences on their emotional, physical and psychological health, personal development, social and family life.  For these reasons, we think that maintaining the sport environment a safe place for children is a necessity and a duty for all of us. CESIE, together with experienced organizations from Greece, Cyprus, Portugal and Scotland, developed the project ACTIVE, founded by the European Commission Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme (2014-2020).

The main aim of the project is to improve data collection and knowledge around the prevention of violence against children and on child protection policies in the field of sports. Also, we will work on the development of trainings for professionals and online self-assessment tool for organizations that want to assess their competences to keep children safe in their environments.

CESIE hosted the first partners’ meeting in Lisbon in December 2019 and it was a great opportunity to discover more about the different national situations and to exchange ideas and good practices.