Special Soccer Camp 2014

This initiative is intended to aid social integration via sport thanks to the inclusion of children with disabilities/difficulties in the Milan Junior Camp – the holiday program promoted by AC Milan – along with fully able children. This diversity, thus, becomes a uniting factor and an occasion for all the children involved to grow together along with their families and the technical staff/organisers.

Social integration and education through sport are the main themes of this mission for Milan Foundation and Milan Junior and the project Special Soccer Camp is perfectly intergrated into this contest.

The project uses football and the experience of playing in a team as the perfect tool to intergrate those with needs – physical disabilities, psychological disabilities and even social awkwardness.

For the summer of 2014 four key interventions have been highlighted in the three main areas

PSYCHOLOGICAL DIFFICULTIES
- Milan City Camp in Cimiano, Milan, in collaboration with AITA Onlus: For the second year a group of autistic children will take part in four weeks of camp. The children will all be followed by psychologists or psychopedagologists AITA tutors, as well as the coaches, on either 1:1 or 1:2 ratio and they will in turn be supervised by specialists in Infantile Neuropsychiatry from national structures. The presence of specialised tutors and also qualified coaches guarantees a professional approach to the specific needs of the children, aids their intergration and optimises the impact on their families whom will feel more comfortable in the knowledge that their children are well looked after in a safe and competent environment. Click here

Milan Junior Camp Germany in collaboration with Special Olympics: over 50 children with various types of mental disabilities – mostly down syndrome – have been inserted into the rossoneri camps in Germany. These children play football alongside normal children with the aim of improving their communication, social and coordination skills. 

PHYSICAL DISABILITIES
- Milan Junior Camp Riva del Garda in collaboration with ASD Gruppo Sportivo Silenziosi: for the first time a group of deaf children will be included in the residential camp of Riva del Garda. The children will be constantly followed by specialised operators and interpreters of the LIS (Italian sign language) to allow the individuals to communicate, both in normal situations as well as on the pitch, with other able-bodied children.

SOCIAL DISABILITIES
- Milan Junior Camp Jesolo in collaboration with La Strada: as Milan Foundation and the Cooperativa Sociale La Strada di Milano continue their fight against school non-attendance, 5 children who have undergone a school recovery program and sporting activity for an entire year have been rewarded with a holiday to the Milan Junior Camp in Jesolo. they will be led by Giorgio Spadola, the coach who has guided them throughout the season and a coach at the camp.