The Island Council is committed to training professionals in inclusive sports practices

The Tenerife Island Council is committed to training and specializing professionals in inclusive sports through the strategy outlined in the Plan for Physical Activity and Sports for Social Inclusion (PADIS), which is being implemented through Ideco. This was stated by the island’s Councilor for Sports, Concepción Rivero, who believes that “we must promote a gradual shift in how we understand inclusion in physical activity and sports in order to advance the normalization of participation by people with disabilities in sports.”

Rivero, who attended the opening ceremony of a training event on this topic—which included some fifty professionals and was held at the University of La Laguna— points out that “PADIS is based on four fundamental pillars: sports activities held outside the centers participating in the project, activities carried out within those centers themselves with people with severe disabilities; the conduct of a study on disability in each municipality to serve as the basis for designing adapted and inclusive municipal sports programs; and the development of a training program like this one to help professionals update their skills.”

The event was also attended by the course director, Miguel Fernández, a professor in the Department of Specific Teaching Methods at the University of La Laguna (ULL); Mercedes Ríos, a professor at the University of Barcelona specializing in inclusion in physical education; and Antonio Manuel Blanco, a representative of the company Ocide Asesores, which is responsible for carrying out the PADIS activities.

The training program, designed by the General Foundation of the University of La Laguna, will be held from April 29 to June 18 in both online and in-person formats under the heading “Physical and Sports Activities in the Context of Social Inclusion.”

Some of the topics they will cover during the course include addressing diversity in sports, various methodological strategies, and interventions in physical activities and social inclusion for people with intellectual, sensory (visual and auditory), and motor disabilities, as well as those with mental health disorders, among others. These topics will be supplemented by hands-on workshops throughout the program.