In Vila Nova de Gaia, in the Porto district, there is a soccer school whose objective is not to create Ronaldos, but to include children and young people from disadvantaged backgrounds or with special needs, the person in charge described this Saturday.
It is called Escola Municipal de Futebol, and it is the result of a partnership between the municipality and the Associação Talentos de Campeão and the training sessions are held twice a week at Colégio de Gaia.
Dedicated to children and young people, boys and girls, from 4 to 15 years old, the Gaia Municipal Soccer School was created 10 months ago and has 60 subscribers. There are already club “scouts” looking for talent at this school, but that’s not even the main goal of the project.
“The main mission is to be supportive and inclusive and allow football to be learned, seeking to include everyone, especially the most disadvantaged and those who have the most needs, whether they are of a social nature or integration or additional support,” he described. deputy. -President of the Association of Champion Talents, Daniel Duarte.
In statements to the Lusa agency, the person in charge, who manages this project and liaises with the Câmara de Gaia, said that “eight or 10 children have already been identified and integrated into clubs that have shown great ability”, but the main objective is “provide sport for all”.
“Inclusion is bringing people from different social strata closer, giving access to the most disadvantaged, including children with specific and special needs, but also giving the possibility to those who like to practice, but do not have access to clubs, because these, well, dedicate yourself to that, to compete, to practice too ”, he described.
Safeguarding that the school is not restricted to training, Daniel Duarte stressed that in this project “we seek, above all, to guarantee principles and values that can be decisive in the education of children and young people.”
Children and young people arrive at the Escola Municipal de Futebol de Gaia, indicated through the different levels of support from the city council and responses from the municipality’s social network, as well as children who are fostered in social solidarity institutions and shelters.
The project was presented to each institution and it was even from this presentation that the idea of extending the project “in the near future” to children with additional support needs, that is, children with disabilities, arose.
“We already have light situations included, children who practice together with everyone. And we are working with institutions that have children with additional support needs in some degree of depth to form a class. The need has already arisen. There is no sports social response for these cases, for these ages. The clubs promote activities for young adults,” said Daniel Duarte.
Another of the objectives of the project is to reinforce the vacancies in women’s football from January.
“Things have to be sustainable so that we go, little by little, adhering to the new challenges. There is a great demand for the project and it seems to us that more vacancies must be guaranteed, ”she summarized.
At a soccer school where athletes are coached by teachers, families are invited to participate in themed events, and the top-performing players are prized, “everyone has access to soccer, even those who don’t have an appetite for it.” sport, but they like to practice”.
Registration is free and the municipality is responsible for providing annual financial support to the Associação Talentos de Campeão for the acquisition of equipment, payment of salaries and medical support and accommodation, transportation and food expenses.
In information sent to Lusa, Câmara de Gaia described this project as “the new paradigm of social integration” and praised its “success”, pointing to the motto of the initiative “Sport for all”.
Source: Observadora
