SPIN Youth is actively contributing to the European Week of Sport (#BeActive, 23-30 September 2025) by putting youth‑led inclusion ideas into practice, making barriers and enablers more visible, and piloting local actions rooted in the project’s action research work.

From Research to Pilots: Youth Panels and Action Plans

Since its launch in January 2024, SPIN Youth has set up Youth Panels across eight partner countries (Austria, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, and Portugal) to drive a co‑creative, participatory research approach. With support and training (for example at the European Training Academy in Rome in 2024), these panels have worked to identify structural, social, and institutional barriers to sport participation for young people with migration, refugee, or minority backgrounds.

On the basis of their findings, each panel developed an action plan tailored to local needs. These plans target challenges such as financial or logistical constraints, language barriers, institutional inflexibility, limited visibility of role models, and weak welcoming cultures in clubs.

In the European Week of Sport 2025, several of these youth‑designed actions are being showcased and piloted publicly. The project frames the week as an opportunity not just for awareness-raising, but for testing and refining these ideas in real settings — sports clubs, youth organisations, community sites — across multiple countries.

Key Themes and Focus Areas

Across countries, some of the recurring themes in the SPIN Youth contributions include:

• Economic and logistical barriers (transport, equipment costs, facility access)
• Administrative and bureaucratic hurdles (membership rules, paperwork)
• Language and communication challenges in clubs and outreach
• Culture of belonging and welcome: how inclusive are club cultures and attitudes
• Role models & visibility: supporting young people from diverse backgrounds to be visible in coaching, leadership, or ambassador roles

These topics reflect the lived insights of youth themselves, grounded in their own contexts, rather than pre‑set assumptions.

Why This Matters — And What’s Next

By centering youth as co‑researchers and co‑designers, SPIN Youth bridges the gap between theory and grassroots reality. The European Week of Sport serves as a public laboratory, giving visibility to the project’s ideas, fostering community engagement, and enabling iterative learning across national contexts.

In the coming months, the pilot actions will be evaluated, refined, and documented. Compiling all insights and publications, the project will finally create its consolidate lessons learned into a Digital Toolbox and a Youth Inclusion Self‑Assessment for sport organisations — resources that clubs and networks across Europe can adopt and adapt.

By combining action research, youth agency, and public outreach, SPIN Youth’s work during the European Week of Sport 2025 showcases how inclusive sport is not just a goal — it can be a process co‑shaped by those whom it seeks to include.

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