“Boarding games as a tool for inclusion – Training course for youth workers” is a project that has been developed between May 15, 2019 and January 14, 2020 and that is part of the inclusion strategy that is developing the coordinator organization from its youth and associative development department. Fundación ASPAYM Castilla y León has been working for years to promote the inclusion of young people with disabilities in our community. In this sense, they organize sensitization and standardization activities that are committed to promote inclusion instead of integration.

The initiative “Boarding games as a tool for inclusion” is a new line of work that is being developed and that serves as a complement to other initiatives developed from the youth area of the organization. In addition, and since 2015, ASPAYM Castilla y León has participated in seminars and courses with European nature to help young people in the region to have more opportunities, both in their leisure activities and in their future development. Following this line of work, the project “Boarding games as a tool for inclusion – Training course for youth workers”, seeks to train youth workers and/or youth leaders to know how to apply the methodology based on board games to promote competences and social skills of youth, especially young people with fewer opportunities.

The objective is to teach youth workers and/ or youth leaders the necessary tools to enhance the social skills and abilities of young people, especially young people with fewer opportunities, in the leisure activities they organize in their communities. In this way, they will be able to use the new knowledge acquired as a methodology, as well as a series of tools to include in their daily work. This will allow the entities of the European Union to reach a greater number of young people and to contribute to the achievement of the Europe 2020 strategy, which calls for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth.

Youth workers and/or youth leaders from Spain, Germany, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Italy, Ireland, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia and Turkey participated from 22nd to 27th September 2019 in Cubillos del Sil, León, Spain, in a training course with the objective of equipping them with the necessary tools to work through the application of a methodology based on board games with young people, especially youngsters with disabilities and risk of exclusion, in order to facilitate their inclusion in the youth activities of their community. In this sense, the main activity counted on 23 participants, 2 from each country that participated in the project and 5 from ASPAYM Castilla y León, including two trainers and one person in charge of logistics.