Strong Mind for Success

The fourth edition of the Not Formal Fest, organized by L’ORMA on September 7, 2024, was a significant moment of study and dialogue around the theme of sport with a focus on the #SMS project, an initiative considered fundamental for the future of youth sport.

During the event we had the opportunity to talk about our project involving all the coaches participating in our Summer Camps. The main objective of this meeting was to deepen and promote the key theme of the #SMS project, namely mental well-being through sport, talking and sharing the activities carried out during the duration of the project:

– We talked about the national and international activities that raised awareness among participants on the topic of mental health in sport.
– We talked about the well-made #SMS Mobility, focusing on the education of young footballers on how to use mental health to their advantage, both in football and in everyday life, sharing photos and stories of the girls who, thanks to L’ORMA, were the protagonists of the Training carried out in Sofia and told the local activities carried out after the mobility.
– We talked about one of the main goals of the project, that is to develop a quality #SMS Manual, aimed at providing knowledge on what mental health is and why it is essential to know it to be successful in sports and then we took the opportunity to deliver our Handbooks in Italian to the coaches present, useful material for their professional and personal growth.

The event not only educated and informed the coaches on the topic of mental well-being, but also created a solid network between professionals in the sector, promoting the sharing of experiences and best practices to ensure a better future for young athletes.

“Strong Mind for Success” is an Erasmus+ co-funded initiative aiming to build capacity in sport organizations nowadays in the field of mental care awareness and care towards youth athletes. Strong Mind for Success project delivers an innovative education on how mental health can contribute for the successful development of young football players in Bulgaria, Italy and Slovenia.

This project uses the knowledge gathered from the results of the objectives and policies from the European Action Plans on Mental Health and focuses on educating young football players on mental health awareness. The target group are youth players (13 – 17), male and female as this age parameter is crucial for the psychological development of the athletes. The relevance and need of such project are supported by the scarcity of data not on what is the effect of sport on mental health, but rather the opposite. During the project will be analysed as well the aspects on how can we use mental health in order to prepare the players mentally and produce quality performance on the field and hopefully on the professional level. With the present project, the consortium aims to further develop the skills of managers as well on how to approach the mental aspects of their players, hopefully acquire the services of more mental health experts and introduce a more holistic approach to football preparation.

MAIN PROJECT OUTPUTS:
• Online platform on the importance of addressing mental health in the sport;
• Practical phase of development of new project ideas through the project lifetime;
• Implementing quality educational and research activities focused on the development of mental health amongst youth football players.

Partnership: 3 different EU countries – experienced organizations in the field of sport with know-how of project management that they can transfer in the project lifetime – Bulgarian sports development association (coordinator) L’ORMA from Italy and sport club Endorfin from Slovenia.