SPORT WOMEN 'S INITIATIVE FOR TOMORROW
1. INTRODUCTION
SWIFT is a project co-founded by the European Commission with the aims to provide ali members of women’s sports clubs with a safe environment that cares for the mental health of female athletes. lt has become evident that female athletes are a group particularly affected by mental health problems, even to the extent of causing them to withdraw from sport, with an incidence twice as high as the incidence of mental health problems in male athletes. Club governance structures, even in countries in Europe that are advanced in terms of social rights, are proving insufficient to address these problems. SWIFT will seek to improve this governance by promoting the dissemination of the positive values of sport, including its mental health benefits, through the identification of the main stressors faced by female athletes, and the adoption of tools adaptad to these factors and implemented in the teams through a Protocol of Good Practices in this area and a communication/complaint channel. The smallscale partnership is composed of 4 partners: a private company (Mithra Legal Advisors), which joins Erasmus+ for the first time, a university (CUS Palermo), an NGO (Athletes Inspire Children) and a women’s volleyball club (VNVB). The methodology will be translated into a Best Practices Protocol and an online communication/complaint channel, along with training guidelines for future implementation in women’s clubs.
The three main objectives of the project are:
1. To raise awareness among young and female athletes of the importance of taking care ohhe1r mental health through the identification of the main stressors. The higher incidence of mental health problems in fema le athletes than in male athletes reveals the existence of stressors specific to women, beyond the challenges faced by ali athletes such as the high training load or the pressure of competition. Thus, the greater social pressure on women’s physique, family reconciliation and its greater weight on women, the traditionally «masculine» styles of management and training, and wage inequality. Knowing which are the main stressors faced by female athletes will allow us not only to develop tools that are adapted to the real needs, but it is also the most powerful way to raise awareness among the athletes themselves of the importance of taking care of their mental health. In order to achieve this objective, and thanks to the participation of CUS Palermo professionals, a study questionnaire will be designed, to be carried out by VNVB athletes, as well as other athletes and young people among whom the studyquestionnaire will be distributed, and from which data relatad to these main stressors can be extractad. Efforts will be made to ensure that the questionnaires are completed by athletes of different ages, social strata, sport disciplines and countries to ensure that the results can be extrapolated. The measurement of the achievement of this objective is carried out through the following indicators: number of study questionnaires completed by athletes.
2. lmprove the governance of sports clubs in relation to the mental health of female athletes. The fact that mental health problems are affecting both young athletes and women with a long sporting career, and that these problems are increasing in advanced countries in terms of social rights of citizenship, is a sign that the governance models of clubs are not being designad taking into account the care of the mental health of sportswomen, beyond the adoption of protocols concerning sexual harassment and physical violence.
The following actions will be carried out to achieve this objective:
a) Through the results of the identification of the main stressors, joining the knowledge of CUS Palermo in mental health matters with the experience of Mithra Legal Advisors, a protocol for the protection of the mental health of female athletes will be designed, addressing measures for the detection, prevention and solution of situations causing mental health problems.
b) Creation of an online platform that functions as a channel for complaints, from which athletes, even anonymously, can inform their club of the existence of situations that are affecting their mental health or breaches of the protocol.
c) Creation of a protocol and platform ebook.
d) Creation of a project website where any sports club can learn about the initiative. Both the protocol and the online reporting platform will be implemented in VNVB, as a pilot test from which to take this project to other teams, with a clear desire for maintenance over time and scalability. The measurement of the achievement of this objective is carried out through the following indicators: availability of the protocol and the platform/complaints channel on the club’s website; protocol evaluation questionnaire for club managers, technical staff and players number of downloads of the project ebook number of accesses to the platform/complaints channel and number of complaints registered on the platform/channel.
3. Help sports clubs to be safe environments for the mental health of players by raising
awareness among ali members. The true implementation of the protocol and the platform, in order to reduce cases of mental health problems in female athletes, requires that they feel the club as a safe environment in which to develop as individuals and as sports professionals, and in which they can raise, without fear of reprisals, situations that represent a stressor.
The following actions will be carried out to achieve this objective:
a) Through the results of the identification of the main stressors, joining the knowledge of CUS Palermo in mental health matters with the experience of Mithra Legal Advisors, a protocol for the protection of the mental health of female athletes will be designed, addressing measures for the detection, prevention and solution of situations causing mental health problems.
b) Creation of an online platform that functions as a channel for complaints, from which athletes, even anonymously, can inform their club of the existence of situations that are affecting their mental health or breaches of the protocol.
c) Creation of a protocol and platform ebook.
d) Creation of a project website where any sports club can learn about the initiative. Both the protocol and the online reporting platform will be implemented in VNVB, as a pilot test from which to take this project to other teams, with a clear desire for maintenance over time and scalability. The measurement of the achievement of this objective is carried out through the following indicators: availability of the protocol and the platform/complaints channel on the club’s website; protocol evaluation questionnaire for club managers, technical staff and players; number of downloads of the project ebook; number of accesses to the platform/complaints channel; and number of complaints registered on the platform/channel.
To this end, it is necessary to raise awareness and train the entire club structure on the importance of mental health and compliance with the protocol. The following activities have been designed to achieve this objective:
a) Awareness and training activities for managers, technical teams and players.
b) lntroduction in the ebook of the project of the main lines of training.
c) Communication and dissemination of the project among other teams throughout Europe, thanks to the network of collaborating athletes and clubs and the communication networks of AIC. The measurement of the achievement of this objective will be carried out through the following indicators: training evaluation questionnaires administered to managers, coaching staff and players; and number of interactions with AIC publications on social networks related to the project.
