Rome, September 2024 – Celebrating its first birthday, sport in the Constitution. Last September, the practice of sports was included in the Constitutional Charter, with the recognition of its educational, social value and promotion of mental and physical well-being. Turning this principle into a guaranteed right are the more than 120,000 sports promotion organizations that work every day to make sport an accessible practice for all.
The main focus of the campaign #Unaltrapartita. Comunità in campo, #Unaltrapartita. Comunità in campo promoted by Acri and Assifero, with associated Foundations, in celebration of the 12th European Day of Foundations, will be on social and inclusive sports. The campaign is supported by the leading networks in inclusive sports: Aics, Csen, Opes, Sport for Inclusion, and Uisp. The initiative has received sponsorship from Rai for Sustainability ESG and media partnership from Rai Sport. From September 23 to October 1, more than 130 events will take place across Italy, including performances, meetings, and activities centered on sports for all. These projects aim to promote physical activity among youth and the elderly, people with disabilities, migrants, and prisoners. The complete list of events can be found at www.unaltrapartita.it.
Fondazione Milan, always at the forefront of promoting inclusive sports, contributed to the campaign with the “Pegaso” project, organizing inclusive sports workshops. On September 25, at the Kayros Community in Vimodrone (Milan), the initiative involved young people from residential communities or day centers, often following civil, administrative, or criminal proceedings, alongside youth with intellectual disabilities, in a day of sports activities led by specialized coaches. With this project, Fondazione Milan reaffirms its commitment to ensuring that sports are a universal right, accessible to everyone, and a powerful tool for social growth and integration.
The state of sports participation in our country is not encouraging. Only just over 20 million Italians (34.5% of the population) engage in sports. This places Italy at the top of the global rankings for inactivity (4th place among adults and 1st among minors). There is also a significant gender gap: women make up only 43.3% of the sports population. A generational issue is also emerging, with young people increasingly abandoning sports (outside of school). Additionally, only half of individuals with disabilities can access sports, compared to those without limitations. The main causes of these disparities are high costs, lack of facilities, and family influence. Psychological reasons, such as anxiety and burnout, are also increasingly pushing young people to quit. In response to this scenario, the Third Sector plays a vital role: one-third of Italian non-profit organizations are involved in sports, supported by nearly 20% of all Italian volunteers.
Italian Foundations stand alongside Third Sector organizations that promote social and inclusive sports because they share the vision of sports as a tool for inclusion, participation, and well-being. Ensuring access to physical activity, regardless of one’s social, economic, or physical condition, is one way to combat inequalities, encourage participation, and strengthen the social cohesion of communities, highlighting the role of organizations that care for the common good.
Each year, Italian Foundations collectively allocate more than one billion euros across various sectors. The largest portion goes to welfare, which receives more than a third of the total, followed by culture, education, and research. Seventy percent of these resources are directed toward Third Sector organizations (the rest mainly goes to local authorities). The importance of Foundations’ support to the non-profit sector was recently acknowledged by Istat, which, in its dedicated Census, reported that 64% of Italian non-profit organizations receive funding from banking foundations. Each year, Foundation funding supports over 20,000 initiatives, with an average contribution of around 50,000 euros per project.
