An Erasmus+ funded project, Small Cooperative Partnerships
* Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them
Countries involved
Sweden
Croatia
Spain
Goals and impact
Sharks is leading a consortium composed of a Croatian sport club (Novi Jelkovec), and a Spanish organisation (MAS). The project aims at raising awareness about the importance of inclusion of non-binary children in sport activities, underlining the principle that sport must be seen as a fundamental right that everyone must be entitled to exercise. The world of sport is currently dominated by the concept of binary categories (female and male genders) and by the androcentric perception that excludes transgender and intersex athletes.
The project wants to support identified sport pilot organisations to strengthen their policies of inclusion and diversity in the youth world of sport. Tailored awareness raising events will support sport organisations in understanding the importance of inclusion of all children in the world of sport. Currently, many infrastructures exist and policies are in place that prevent inclusion of athletes in sport activities and do not allow them to benefit their fundamental right to practice sport, as a tool for well-being, proper physical growth and integrated social life.
The overall objective is to raise awareness of the inclusion of young athletes in sport activities through a set of workshops and with the organization of local sport events for inclusion. The project will also create an ICT platform to share documentation and information among the sport organizations at pan-European level. In the final event foreseen at the project end, the project stakeholders will have the opportunity to share their experiences, difficulties, results, and lesson learnt achieved through the project.
Main project milestones
Three pilot sports organisations have been identified.
In Sweden: School Sport Association at the International School of Stockholm.
In Croatia: Finswimming Team Komet.
In Spain: Miribilla BTT Eskola.
Collaboration with NGOs is essential to provide quality information and knowledge sharing.
In Sweden: Fryshuset.
In Croatia: KolekTIRV and Queer Sport.
In Spain: Naizen.
A Rapid Assessment and Training Needs Analysis to detect existing capacities and needs.
In Sweden, on 8 April 2025, Frusyhuset met the Sport Association and discussed thoroughly about existing policy and possible gaps in inclusion policy.
In Croatia, on 14 May 2025, KolekTIRV and qSPORT met the Sport Association and discussed about the current political challenges, including lack of awareness, persistent stereotypes, and the need for safe spaces in the sport environment. Upon the exchange, the Croatian project partners started the elaboration of an anonymous questionnaire to assess the perception of inclusion among sport actors.
In Spain, on 30 July 2025, Sharks organised an on-line videocall with Naizen and the Sport Association to discuss about the support of the TCiS project and the approach to strengthen a thorough inclusion policy and develop awareness.
Awareness and information raising on inclusion.
In Sweden, on 19 May 2025, Sharks supported the organisation of a workshop where Fryshuset shared with the Sport Association important policy knowledge and practices to strengthen inclusion policies.
In Croatia, on 14 May 2025, Novi Jelkovec, KolekTIRV and qSPORT delivered a presentation aiming at raising the awareness on the fundamental aspect of gender diversity, the use of a respectful language and the benefits of adopting inclusive sport activities. Two young non-binary athletes shared their experiences highlighting positive encounters and challenges related to participation, acceptance and visibility. Sport coaches, athletes and club personnel participated in the event.
In Spain, on 14 August 2025, Naizen met with Miribilla BTT and had the possibility to analyse in details the sport association policy on inclusion, the sport coaches’ capacities and awareness and provided concrete advice to improve and strengthen their practical approach towards sport-for-all.
Organisation of sport events to enhance inclusion among young athletes.
In Sweden, on 10 June 2025, the Sport Association organised a sport event for the children of the International School of Stockholm, part of its activities curricula. The Sport Association took the chance to enhance the TCiS project visibility and strengthen inclusion through sports. Giveaways (t-shirts and bags) with the logo of the TCiS project and of Erasmus+ were distributed to the participants. The sport activities were targeted to all children, without categorising them as female-, male- or mixed-groups activities, in order to underline the importance of inclusion in sport.
In Croatia, on 19 July 2025, Novi Jelkovec with the support of KolekTIRV, qSPORT organised the first sport event, at lake Jarun, in Zagreb. The event consisted in several sport activities, e.g., football skills course, beach volleyball, dodgeball and skating, aiming at creating a safe, inclusive and welcoming environment for all participants, with a strong emphasis on non-binary and gender diversity awareness. Between 13 and 23 September 2025, as part of the broader “QueeRujan” initiative, qSPORT.info, together with KolekTIRV and Novi Jelkovec, organised a series of activities, e.g., finswimming and volleyball training sessions, combining sport, social, and educational events in Zagreb, which consisted in the project second sport event. The
In Spain, on 11 September 2025, Miribilla BTT Eskola with the support of Naizen organised a sport event tailoring young cyclist and showing the importance of inclusion in a sport such as mountain biking, which offers an excellent opportunity to everyone to develop health habits, social life and fun open to all children. The event consisted in a parkour by bicycle, where children had to face several technical challenges and test their abilities. Children completing the parkour received project gadgets (e.g., a water bottle with the logos of the project partners and the emblems of EU and Euskadi). Visibility items, such as banners and a drop-flag with the project logos, as well as a social media banner, ensured good visibility of the activities.
Development of an electronic exchange platform.
The aim of the ICT platform is to ensure information and communication exchange among the countries’ stakholders.
Each pilot sport organisation will nominate a “Coordinator for Gender Equality” (CGE), who will be responsible to ensure dialogue and exchange of policy documents, experiences, best practice and difficulties with the other countries’ organisations, with the aim to support them in strengthening inclusion.
Project final event.
The project final event took place in Bilbao, on 27 September 2025. The final dissemination seminar had two primary purposes. On the one hand, to disseminate the project activities, lessons learned, and best practices acquired during the implementation phase by the representatives from the three countries engaged in the project, Sweden, Croatia and Spain. This also included a thorough assessment of the project approach’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, as well as of its final impact on the selected pilot sport organisations and the possibility to replicate or continue the activities without further EU funds support. On the other hand, the event aimed to increase the visibility of the Erasmus+ programme and its grant opportunities.
Sharks, Novi Jelkovec and MAS introduced the aim of the project and the different approaches adopted in each country. The Swedish School Sport Association, Komet and Miribilla BTT shared their experiences, difficulties and lessons learnt also through the practical support provided by the NGOs. Fryshuset, KolekTIRV and Naizen distributed important information, analyses and statistics related to inclusion of non-binary people into sport activities. Finally, all participants had the opportunity to look ahead to the possibility to further disseminate awareness raising on inclusion but with a more in-depth approach and actions and by including a wider target audience, such as federations and/or public entitites responsible for sport activities.
Main project deliverable.
Following the outcome of the discussion, and in consideration of the long coordination, information and knowledge exchange ensured by all project stakeholders throughout the activities, the TCiS project elaborated the Practical Guidelines on Inclusion (available in English, Croatian, Swedish and Spanish language), which remains available (free download) to the public for information and possibly for adoption.
The project implementation period will end on 31 October 2025.
