WPF Sponsorship
Pickleball Spain - Erasmus Project - Pickle4all
We applaud Pickleball Spain for securing European Union funding via the European Commission Erasmus + Sport project for Pickle4all Project.
WPF provided $5000 in sponsorship dollars and another $3000 in equipment to help sponsor the Spanish Federation’s effort with the Erasmus project – to help guarantee success.
The Pickle4all project aims to expand the practice of pickleball in several European countries – Belgium, Bulgaria and Italy – to promote pickleball as the sport that encourages social inclusion and equal opportunity for all.
Inclusive Pickleball
The project was kicked off in March 2021 via a Zoom call with the participating organisations to:
- brief them on the project, planned activities and outcomes
- learn about the participating organisations and what their area of focus is
- introduction to the external collaborators (WPF, Zebra and Foundation Alas Madrid).
Project Milestones
In September 2021 the project was given visibility at the Spanish Open tournament. Video link.
In December 2021, Pickleball Spain hosted the first 100% inclusive pickleball event for all ages and abilities (including physical and mental challenges). See video below left.
In February 2022, the team travelled to Milan to deliver clinics for both students and teachers. This was organized by L’Orma using the premises of the “Giuseppe Luigi Lagrange” Public Institute. See video below right.
L’Orma themselves have great credentials:
A non – profit educational agency that since 2000 develops and delivers the best possible formative sportive / expressive experiences based on non-formal education and aimed at personal and professional growth of children, parents and sport instructors. The permanent staff is composed by 10 persons that coordinates every year more than 100 educators, developing different initiatives declined in sport, physical and artistic expression and playful-recreational education activities.
The main objective of the Orma is to promote social inclusion through: easy, inclusive sports activities designed to be practiced by everyone; training courses for youth workers, teachers and sports instructors; innovative projects for the inclusion of disabled and migrants.
L’ORMA is affiliated to the Italian Sport Orienteering Federation and the Italian Modern Pentathlon Federation it plays a prestigious role in the regional and national scene, especially concerning the youth movement.
L’ORMA is accredited as an educational institution for training school teachers, by the Ministry of Education in Italy.
Overall, during its more than 18 years of experience, “L’Orma” has involved 380 schools, 940 teachers, more than 34,000 children and 67,000 parents, designing and implementing more than 1200 educational and sport initiatives.
Pickle4all is working with Right2Score in Belgium (who work with young people at risk of social exclusion), Bullsport (who work with intellectually disabled people with their Badminton Speed partner in Bulgaria as well as L’Orma.
In addition to educating the organisations about pickleball and training teachers in how to introduce and coach pickleball, the project is also distributing equipment to the organisations so that they can continue to offer pickleball as part of their product offering.
Introducing the Pickle4all logo.
This logo represents all the objectives pursued with this project: Inclusivity, Community and Passion for sport.
100% Inclusive Event in Madrid – December 2021
Italian local implementation – February 2022