Sportivi Circolari: Campioni di Sostenibilità” is an initiative carried out by Balon Mundial, an organization active in the fields of sport and inclusion, in the city of Torino, Italy. The project collects unused and broken bycicles to involve youngsters from disadvantaged neighbourhoods of the city at risk of exclusion, supporting them in repairing the bicycles and running workshops on circular economy through sport activities.
Objectives:
- To provide a learning path on the topic of circular economy through sport activities in contact with nature
- To offer inclusion opportunities to youngsters from disadvantaged neighbourhoods
- To give a second life to unused and broken bycicles developing recycling and repairing skills to avoid generation of waste
- To promote environmental sustainability through the use of sport activities
Description:
The „Sportivi Circolari: Campioni di Sostenibilità” initiative is carried out in the city of Torino by the sport organization Balon Mundial, an organization active in the field of inclusion through sport activities, together with other partner NGOs and with the support of Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo.
The activity is divided in multiple steps and aims at providing an inclusive space for disadvantaged youth in two neighbourhoods of Torino (Mirafiori and Lingotto) to learn how to rebuild bycicles from unused and broken ones and gain knowledge on circular economy and environmental sustainability through outdoor sport activities.
The bycicles are donated by the population, the youngsters involved (at risk of exclusion) learn how to fix them and then use them in different sport activities, cleaning the city, doing plogging actions, and participating in sport workshops about circular economy.
The project, in its first edition, started in February 2024 and is running until July 2025.
Impact and Results:
Minors (14-16 years old): Participation in outdoor sport activities, educational workshops on sustainability and eco-citizenship projects.
Young Adults (18-35 years old): Empowerment programs on circular economy, outdoor sport activities, building of a light cycling repair workshop.
Sport Educators (over 25 years old): Training on SDGs, building competences in environmental management, gaining educational competences on environmental issues.
Local community: Building programs for environmental awareness, requalification of urban spaces for educational and sport activities and community events.
The project actively involves 150.000 people residents in the areas of the initiative.
Conclusions and Suggestions for Youth Workers:
Working together on gathering, gaining skills on repairing, actively work on fixing used and broken sport materials, and then being engaged in direct sport activities using such materials and learning together about environmental sustainability is a powerful way to become active and more aware on these topics.
Besides the cycling actions, it could be transformed in many other activities (i.e. shoes repairing, balls, canoes, or other sport equipment), and the actions involving after the participants with the materials they created and recuperated are much more powerful and engaging.
It can be combined with a lot of different other activities on the topic.
Links for reference:
.