Inspiring initiatives and local heroes recognised at the #BeActive 2023 Awards Ceremony
11/29/2023 By Manal Najah, ISCAThe EU Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Iliana Ivanova, announced the winners of the 2023 #BeActive Awards along with sports ministers from across Europe at the annual European Week of Sport gala in Brussels on 23 November. The 12 finalists competed in the categories of Education, Workplace, Local Hero, and Across Generations for a grand prize. Each finalist received €2,500, and the winners received €10,000.
Photo by the EC
The awards aim to highlight best practices and local change-markers through the European Week of Sport and the HealthyLifestyle4All initiative.
FINALISTS AND WINNERS
Source: sport.ec.europa.eu
Education
The shortlist for this category was:
- FC Groningen B.V., the Netherlands
- Patronat Municipal de Serveis d'Atenció a les Persones de Martorell, Spain
- Per Mertesacker Stiftung, Germany
Patronat Municipal de Serveis d’Atenció a les Persones de Martorell took first place with its project “Martorell Educa 360” that addresses inequalities in the education system, and promotes educational success, equity, and social cohesion.
The project works with children, teenagers and their families to understand their educational needs, helping them succeed in education. Martorell Educa 360 ensures that children and teenagers have access to formal education tools. It also promotes the practice of other activities in a context of equality, namely physical activities.
Workplace
This year’s nominees for this category were
- Eversports, Austria
- Groep Sportoase, Belgium
- MOVEVO Technologies, Austria
And the winner was Eversports for its project supporting an active lifestyle and work-life balance and creating opportunities for its employees to be active.
Acknowledging that maintaining the health and well-being of its employees is of utmost importance, Eversport promotes daily “sports breaks” and sporting activities during and outside work.
Local Hero
In contention for this award were
- Efstratios Alexandropoulos, Greece
- Kalin Vasilev, Bulgaria
- Martino Corazza, Spain
With the winner being Kalin Vasilev, who has managed to inspire and lead thousands of Bulgarians towards a healthier and more active lifestyle with a project that is 100% volunteer and community based.
Created as a community sport group, the project eventually grew into the Bulgarian non-governmental organisation "Tarnovo Health".
Across Generations
The finalists in this category were
- Niedersächsische Kinderturnstiftung, Germany
- Município de Vila Nova de Cerveira, Portugal
- Universidad de Murcia, Spain
The first place was awarded to Município de Vila Nova de Cerveira for its project that seeks to encourage and motivate their citizens, especially the elderly community, to adopt healthy lifestyles.
The project identified and promoted new activities encouraging the integration of people aged 60 and over in sporting programmes and contributing towards a healthy lifestyle.
This goal was achieved through a set of integrated actions, such as the sharing and dissemination of good practices, and the study and organisation of sporting competitions with age-adapted games.
Congratulations to all the winners and finalists of the 2023 #BeActive Awards!
The recording of the #BeActive Awards Ceremony 2023 can be watched here.
The #BeActive Awards ceremony was followed by the 2023 European Week of Sport Debrief seminar, where the European Commission shared EWOS results, and thanks to all the 40 National coordinating bodies, 37,000 events were organised with 11 million participants taking part.
Observing the collective effort to promote a healthy lifestyle and encouraging people to #BeActive is truly uplifting.
