"<< Background >>The FIS4yes Project was strongly targeted to prevent early school leaving and promoting physical activity and healthy lifestyles among young people, especially from vulnerable groups, through innovative football-based programs. Football is very popular among young people and the project used football as a powerful tool in working with adolescents experiencing behavioural and emotional difficulties and at risks of school exclusion and social exclusion.<< Objectives >>The overall aim of the project was to exchange partners’ experiences and best practices in using football to engage with young people, to help them to learn and develop as individuals; particularly the project best practice ""Sport and Thought"" takes the traditional educational activities in classrooms and places them on the football pitch; and in this way ensures the active engagement and participation of students at risk of school exclusion.<< Implementation >>Major project activities were the three transnational meetings in London, Madrid and Vilnius: these meetings were the ideal way for exchanging best practices, and a precious source of inspiration for participants through practical observation of the hosting partner’s approach and demonstration of the way of using football for education of young people.<< Results >>The project has mainly met its initial objectives and final evaluation of the project was positive: firstly, participants in transnational meetings acquired new skills, ideas and innovative models in promoting education and social inclusion of young students through sport; partners’ cooperation was of good level and quality throughout the entire project duration and they increased their capacity to cooperate at EU level, laying down the basis for future cooperation beyond the project end."

The ESY Project “Easy School for Young Students” aimed at sharing good practices in prevention of early school leaving, especially for young students from vulnerable groups.Particularly the project focused on transferring the “Sport& Thought, Football as Therapy” approach to other partners form Italy, Spain and Greece. “Sport & Thought” is an innovative way of working with adolescents with behavioural issues, that uses a proven psychodynamic model of working with adolescents and fuses the sport of football, psychodynamic thinking and theory to act as a preventative tool to early school leaving, via the use of sport and the symbolism of sport. Recent IPPR research (https://www.ippr.org/research/publications/making-the-difference ) underlines psychological reasoning behind ESL and potential ways to counter it, and high economic and social costs of school exclusion (study estimates that the cost of exclusion is around £370,000 per young person in lifetime education, benefits, healthcare and criminal justice costs). Even though great efforts have been undertaken at European level for reducing the share of early school leavers below the 10 % benchmark by 2020, ESL still remain a relevant issue nowadays.Overall the evaluation findings show that the ESY Project has mainly met its original objectives and some activities exceeded the initial expectation.First of all, the achievements of the project were largely positive with reference to sharing the S&T model with partners and exchange of good practices.17 persons from partners (mainly psychologists, teachers, educators, pedagogues and other experts with experiences in working with students with complex and special educational needs) were trained at the 3-days London-based Transnational Training Course and mobility action; and 9 people from partners took part into two transnational meetings in Milan and Lisbon for exchange of ideas, good practices. The methodology used in the mobility action and project meetings was based on experiential learning and practical participation to practical sessions in classroom and on the field, the teaching methods were dynamic, with group discussions and practical sessions in order to assure the active involvement of participants.In connection with the course in London, the “Sport & Thought toolkit” has been realized and distributed to partners (and also made available to interested parties online) in order to go deeper in S&T approach, and better understand the S&T innovative intervention that uses football sessions as therapy for young students at risk of social exclusion.The ESY project’ results have been very positive with reference to development of cooperation and European network of organizations operating in ESL.Communication and dissemination activities undertaken via online tools, project promotional materials, local workshops and interaction with other projects in the fields of educations, youth and sport contributed to raise awareness on importance of prevention and combating ESL.In this way the project also created the conditions for increasing partners’ capacity to cooperate internationally, to develop new collaborative projects (e.g. the “Sport4life project” which further develop British coordinator and Italian partner and aims at promoting skills development, wellbeing and health-enhancing physical activity among young students), and last but not least, to enlarge the EU network in other EU Countries and beyond the initial consortium (with organisations in Spain and Lithuania and a new project titled “FIS4YES Football in Schools for Young Students”).The impact of the project has been largely positive. Participants in mobility action and transnational project meetings developed their knowledge, acquired new skills and competences in working with young people with behavioural issues; they also increased their capacity to work and cooperate at transnational level.Partner organizations benefited from synergies and exchange of good practices and benefited from different experiences of other partners, improved their capacity to cooperate at European level and the quality of their work environment.The project impact on young students at risk of school exclusion, and schools directly involved in the project, was also positive: project findings so far, underline how the project supported schools in tackling early school leaving and reducing their ESL rate, as well as improving school financial performance, reputation and ranking. Project’s results were particularly positive with reference to the reduction of ESL rates among young students directly involved in project activities.Finally, relevant stakeholders outside the consortium benefited from synergies between the world of education and informal/ non-formal education in dealing with ESL and education failures, form strengthening cooperation between different actors in the fields of education, youth and social inclusion.

The SPES project aimed at sharing good practices in promotion of education through sport, especially to help young students from vulnerable groups to remain in school and complete their education through sport.The project partnership was composed by 5 organizations from 4 EU States (UK, Spain, Italy and Romania), with relevant experiences in the fields of sport and education.The final report shows the project has mainly met its original objectives and partners’ final evaluation of the project was a positive experience.Firstly, the project’s results were largely positive with reference to promotion of sport and physical activity among young people for personal growth and wellbeing: 1300+ girls and boys under 18 yo, from different disadvantaged groups, have been involved in project activities in all partners’ Countries.Secondly, the project brought added value to partners through exchange of good practices and experiences in promoting education through sport: three transnational project meetings in persons have been organized and online meetings, after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic:- Kick-off meeting, March 2019, (London, UK);- 2nd Transnational Project Meeting, September 2019, (Madrid, Spain);- 3rd Transnational Project Meeting, October, 2019, (Milan, Italy);- Final online meeting, 26 November 2020.These transnational activities were the ideal ways for exchanging ideas and have a practical observation of the way of working of the hosting partners with young people at risk of school and social exclusion.The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic has largely impacted on project activities, however partners continued to deliver their sport-based initiatives for young people through new interventions and new ways of working due to Covid-19 restrictions (e.g. via virtual and online games and activities).The impact of the project on partner organizations and participants has been largely positive: - participants increased their capacity to work at EU level, developed their knowledge, and acquired new skills and competences in promoting education through sport;- partner organizations, benefited from exchange of good practices, enlarged their network at UE level, improved the quality of their work environment.Partners’ methodologies have been widely acknowledged as models of good practices in using sport as a way of addressing school and social issues, particularly:- the Sport and Thought approach proved to be one of the most effective provision in tackling the problems of social inequality and its links to performance at school through sport-based programme and it was one of the lead programmes in the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation “Sports Scores” report, naming the most influential projects in Europe working with adolescents using sport as a medium to encourage change;- the work of the Respect Project has received a highly commended award for its work at the Northern Ireland Executive’s Department of Justice Community awards which were held at Stormont Parliament Buildings.Finally, partners agreed to develop their cooperation at European level also beyond the project end and enlarging the partnership in the framework of the new Erasmus programme 2021-2027, exploring new opportunities of collaborative project in the future.