The aim of the project InDive – Integrating Diversities Through Watersports, is to encourage social inclusion and equal opportunities in sports, with a specific focus on people with mental and physical disabilities.
The project specifically focuses on watersports and physical activities taking place in the water, such as:
- Swimming
- Springboard/Platform diving
- Synchronized swimming
- Psychomotricity in water
- Sailing
- Surfing
The differences in between the various activities are many. But across these differences, there’s something that all of these practices and disciplines have in common, and which makes them particularly suited for people with various disabilities.
First and foremost water is an element in which also someone with physical disabilities may feel at ease and express themselves fully.
Some of these sports, such as swimming, are considered – from a physical point of view – the most complete in absolute terms.
Water is an extremely important element at a psychic level; the most recent tests and research studies show that water-based sports have a positive effect in cases of anxiety and depression.
A further element consists in the recreational element that characterizes many water-based sports.
In spite of the progress that has been made in the last few years in this field, there is still a scarce knowledge of the potentiality that these sports offer for the well-being of people with various disabilities.
This, in between operators, volunteers, the disabled themselves and their families.
The project intends to fill this void, creating, in particular:
- a training course on watersports for disabled people;
- a manual for teaching to disabled persons in the watersport;
- a collection of the best practices of integration of people with disabilities through watersports;
- implementation of events, conferences and seminars on the project’s topic;
- awareness-raising activities for the population concerning integration through sport.