Imagine a volleyball tournament, in which a high school team plays against a team of students with intellectual disabilities. They already tried to play against each other however, it did not work. The high school students adjusted the way they played, tweaking and changing, but to no success. Then, the high school students mix with students with special needs, they play in diversified teams against each other and the game starts. The result does not matter anyway because it is all about cooperation, respect, and fair play. The boundaries between “normal” and “special” are erased; play, joy, happiness, and the inclusion of everyone are the things that matter. The game, even sports in general, is shown repeatedly as an important tool of inclusion, integration, and connection of people with different needs.

18 years ago, the idea arose to bring people with intellectual disabilities from behind the walls of segregated educational institutions into the world, into city centres, among people, and into society. And this is how the international festival year Play with Me was born, followed shortly by the first international inclusive sports and social event Be a Sportsman – Play with Me . From the very beginning, many stakeholders – schools, kindergartens, associations, clubs and volunteers – have been playing an important role in its realisation.
Over the years, the event gained significant media attention, increased participation, and at the same time contributed to the opening of Slovenian society, which progressively accepted people with special needs. The festival year had an impact not only on Slovenian society, but also on a wider scale, as similar events took place in other countries, and in the case of Slovenia also in other cities, not just Ljubljana. Thus, every year at the end of May, the Congress Square is transformed into one big, heart-warming, connecting, collaborative venue, and on Slovenian Sports Day, the grassy surface of the Triglav Sports Center is transformed into one big, moving, sporting joy.
Sports and inclusion are the central elements of our long-term efforts, with which we provide time and space for people to connect, cooperate, get to know each other, overcome their own obstacles, prejudices and fears. The international inclusive sport and social event Be a Sportsman – Play with Me is an event of this kind that strives to include people with special needs in regular sports clubs, associations or exercise activities in general. Through the participation of schools, societies and individuals in the event, we want to overcome possible obstacles and challenges on the way to realising this idea of inclusion. And over the years, this is how many beautiful stories were written by associations and clubs such as Woop!, Sport association Sokol, Tatami Judo club and many others who have experience of inclusive practice in the field of sports.
The essential idea behind such international events is that, on the one hand, they give people with special needs the opportunity to shine, to show that they too can do many things, contribute in the preparation and implementation of such an event, or to actively participate in it. On the other hand, this kind of event sensitises the majority population to accept people with fewer opportunities, overcome their own fears, prejudices, obstacles and, in the final stage, cooperate with them, play, bounce the ball. The most beautiful part of inclusion is precisely that the boundaries vanish; so that it is no longer even obvious that for example, the leader of the workshop has special needs or that the team of volunteers also consists of individuals with fewer opportunities.

Mednarodna dimenzija tovrstnih dogodkov nam je še kako pomembna, saj si že leta prizadevamo, da bi naše dobre prakse potovale preko meja. Letos je naš dogodek del evropskega projekta Erasmus+ šport programa z naslovom »Sport play, for winning the way« oziroma SportWay. Projekt združuje partnerje in posameznike iz Slovenije, Avstrije in Italije z namenom organizacije inkluzivnih športnih dogodkov, ki spodbujajo sodelovanje in vključevanje vseh, ne glede na posebne potrebe ali socialno ozadje. Projekt poudarja pomen poštene igre ter prizadevanj za ustvarjanje bolj vključujoče športne kulture z organizacijo delavnic in turnirjev.
Vsi smo namreč prepričani, da tovrstni dogodki služijo tudi kot poligon za udeležence in izvajalce, ki želijo pridobiti znanje in izkušnje o tem, kako vključevati inkluzivne prakse v redne športne aktivnosti, s čimer prispevajo k dolgoročni spremembi pristopa k športu na ravni Evropske unije. Cilj je tudi dolgoročna vključitev teh dogodkov v Evropski teden športa po vsej Evropski uniji.
Organizacija tovrstnega mednarodnega inkluzivnega dogodka zahteva skrbne in temeljite priprave, ki se začnejo že mesece pred njegovo izvedbo in z namenom, da bi k tej aktivnosti organiziranja spodbudili in podprli še marsikatere druge organizacije v evropskem prostoru, smo si zadali, da vse korake skrbno beležimo, zapišemo in naredimo praktičen, uporaben priročnik. Ta bo zajemal tako vidim organizacije, kot tudi vključevanja prostovoljcev in vseh, ki so-ustvarjajo njegovo dogajanje. Na voljo bo naslednje leto, do takrat pa se bodo podobni dogodki kot je Bodi športnik – Igraj se z mano, odvili še v Italiji in Avstriji.
Star kitajski pregovor ima prav: “Povej mi in bom pozabil, pokaži mi in se bom spomnil, vključi me in bom razumel.” Najbolj bodo razumeli tisti, ki bodo vključeni v mednarodne inkluzivne dogodke kot je Bodi športnik – Igraj se z mano. Vabljeni tudi sami, da to izkusite in doživite. Priložnosti je vsako leto septembra na slovenski dan športa.

Marja Medved – Coordinator of projects and volunteers
Centre Janez Levec Ljubljana
