Any new beginning, new meeting brings with it a pleasant excitement and opens the way for friendship, cooperation, experience and helps to achieve the set goals. This is exactly how the first transnational meeting of the Erasmus+ program project “Sport Possibilities in Restriction Periods” implemented by the “BK-95” society took place in Jurmala, Latvia, where all project partners met – the Romanian Scout Association, the Turkish School Sports Federation, Football school club “Lituanica” and association “BK-95”.

Some of the partners knew each other from working together in other projects, while some got to know each other again. During two days, work on the project documentation – Work plan, Communication plan and Quality plan, which are important documents in the implementation of the project, was carried out, as well as the activities planned in the project were discussed, in which way each of the project participants intended to organize and popularize them.

“No matter how much remote meetings can facilitate daily work in projects, it is only as a support mechanism, because the basis for a successful project is face-to-face meetings where partners get to know each other, directly transfer information, ask, explain and solve issues that sometimes remain unspoken, misunderstood or otherwise missed. It is much more difficult to work together with strangers and achieve project goals, while we can rely on partners we know and be sure that the results of the project will be achieved,” says Sandija Zaļupe, head of the association “BK-95” and project manager.

After productive work, the guests had the opportunity to enjoy the atmosphere of waiting for Christmas in the magnificently decorated streets and places of Riga, including the Christmas market in Dome Square.

The aim of the project is to promote sports and physical activity events, including competitions, during restricted periods. By implementing the project, it would be possible to introduce the culture of remote competitions at all levels of sports in order to maintain the motivation of both representatives of grassroots sports and pupils of vocational orientened sports institutions (sports schools, sports clubs) to play sports, compete and maintain a healthy lifestyle. The project aims to identify sports events that can be organized under limited conditions, develop a free guide, as well as collect and distribute good practice examples of organizing competitions during restrictions.

The project started at the beginning of November and will end in October next year.

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.