CB4leisureYwD – Capacity Building in Youth Work for Inclusion of Youngsters with Disabilities through Quality Youth Sport Work, Outdoor and Leisure Programmes – is an international project connecting four youth organisations from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Italy, Serbia and Kosovo. Each partner brings a different background and area of expertise; from social inclusion and advocacy to non-formal education, sport-based youth work and direct work with people with disabilities; and it is precisely this mix of perspectives and experience that makes the partnership strong.
The need for this project is well-documented. Research shows that people with disabilities participate in physical and leisure activities at rates up to three times lower than those without disabilities. For young people, this gap is particularly significant; because sport and leisure are not just about physical health. They are spaces for building friendships, developing skills, gaining confidence and feeling part of a community. When young people with disabilities are excluded from these spaces, the consequences go far beyond missing a football session or a weekend hike.
Through surveys and interviews conducted with youth workers and parents of youngsters with disabilities across our countries, we consistently found the same barriers: youth workers who want to be inclusive but lack the training, methods and tools to do so effectively; programmes that exist but are not adapted to diverse needs and abilities; and spaces – both physical and social – that were simply not designed with everyone in mind.
CB4leisureYwD was created to address these gaps directly, practically and sustainably.
CB4leisureYwD develops concrete, freely available resources for youth workers, educators, coordinators and organisations who want to create more inclusive environments for young people with disabilities – whether inclusion is already at the core of their work, or something they are working towards.
The first area of work focuses on changing perspectives; shifting the way civil society, youth workers and communities see young people with disabilities: not as people who need help, but as people who have something to give. To support this, the project develops a practical manual for youth workers on organising workshops around this topic, an online advocacy course, and a series of short videos created by and featuring people with and without disabilities.
The second area focuses on inclusion in practice – giving youth workers and coordinators the specific knowledge and tools they need to adapt spaces, equipment and methodologies so that mainstream and differently-abled youngsters can participate together. This includes a comprehensive toolkit with practical workshop designs, a second online course, and a collection of positive practice examples gathered from all four partner countries.
The third area focuses on empowerment; building the capacity of young people with disabilities themselves to take on active roles as coordinators and managers of inclusive sport facilities. A full curriculum is developed, tested through local training courses in all partner countries, and made freely available in five languages.
All project outputs – manuals, toolkits, online courses, curriculum and positive practice collection; are published in English, Bosnian, Serbian, Albanian and Italian, and remain freely accessible long after the project concludes.