The projects
The initiative, at its fifth edition, aims to promote social inclusion through sports thanks to the integration of disabled children within the Milan Junior Camp along with other able-bodied kids.
These weeks of work are of great help for AC Milan coaches, who learn how to handle the different medical cases, and for the tutors of partner organisations that are trained in organising sports activities and can appreciate the benefits. Diversity becomes a value and an opportunity for growth for all the boys involved, their families, and the technical/organisational staff. The project puts football as a mean for integration to respond to different types of difficulties: physical disability, psychological and intellectual discomfort. Camp’s experience, especially in the overnight accommodation formula, helps children to increase their autonomy and organisational and social skills.
In our country, there are 85,000 pupils with disabilities in primary school and around 65,000 in secondary school: the number of these children engaged in some sporting activity is dramatically low. The proper facilities are missing and often the coaches are not trained to handle the different issues. Even more serious is the lack of information on the services present on the territory and the lack of awareness of the rehabilitative and educational function of sports in the treatment of pathologies.
These factors, coupled with the limited disposable income of households, often divert children with disabilities from sports, including, among others, a growth and socialisation experience, increasing the risk of isolation.
Special Soccer Camp was born from the collaboration between Milan Foundation and Milan Academy. For summer 2017, four specific interventions were identified:
– Milan City Camp in Milan, at the Cimiano Sports Centre, in collaboration with the : for the fifth consecutive year, a group of 9 children affected by autism spectrum disorders, along with 54 typical developmental companions, Three weeks of camp.
– Milan Junior Camp in Lignano Sabbiadoro (UD), for the second consecutive year, is realised in collaboration with
: 8 children with intellectual disabilities and 108 peers attend the camp from July 30 to August 5 in a residential formula.
– Milan Junior Camp San Martino al Cimino (VT), realised in collaboration with Project AITA Onlus, addressed to 5 children with autistic spectrum disorder and 44 able-bodied peers. This camp is a novelty this season. The camp will take place from June 11 to June 17 in a residential formula.
– Special Soccer Camp Naples, realised in collaboration with SSD Europa and Aita Onlus Project addressed to fifteen children with autism spectrum disorder and 53 typical children. The camp will take place throughout the month of July.
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A small gesture is enough to contribute to the realization of projects in support of the most fragile and marginalized children.
