The European Union (EU) Action Plan on Integration and Inclusion 2021-2027 shows that inclusion as a principle ought to permeate every aspect of EU and member state policy. The report also states that “the European way of life is an inclusive one”.

Sports, when properly implemented as such, is an integral part of this way of life, but also of human interaction and culture in general, and the policies that form them, are no exception in this respect. In the spirit of the EU Action Plan, but also the member states’ common acquis of human rights guarantees, including social and cultural rights as well as children’s rights, inclusive sport programs for children are concrete manifestation of inclusion and participation policies.

The way in which these programs are planned, organized, and conducted are results (top-down), but also drivers (bottom-up) of inclusive policies.

The project “Sports organizations Matching Social Inclusion issues” (SmatchS) is building on these aspirations of the Union and of its member states, translating them into improved sport activities for children with migration histories that consider specific challenges and needs among their target groups.

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SmatchS is an initiative of six organizations from sport, social and academic areas, willing to contribute with their joint efforts to encouraging social inclusion and equal opportunities in sport. The area of intervention of the project consortium is the social inclusion of migrant children of 8-14 years old by providing them with facilitated access to sport activities.
The main project objective is to develop and apply to the local contexts a Practical Intervention Methodology (SmatchS Methodology) of social inclusion of children with a migratory background through sport activities by creating synergies between grassroots sport and social organizations as well as local authorities from Spain, France, Portugal, Cyprus and Greece.

One of the important elements of the project implementation in general and development of the project methodology, in particular, is the collaboration with the academic partner (University of Graz, Austria) for providing effective data collection, validation and evaluation of the impact of sport activities for social inclusion of children in migration.