Join our webinar ‘’Sport, mental health and well-being for #BEACTIVE citizens’’

11:00: Opening – ENGSO and The European Lotteries (EL) introduction and welcoming

Stefan Bergh, President of ENGSO, and Hansjörg Höltkemeier, President of The European Lotteries (tbc)

11:10: SPIRIT – Presentation of the project outcome and how this could facilitate the active/healthy lifestyle of people at grassroots level – SPIRIT researcher

Rachel May, ENGSO

11:25: Sport as a vehicle to promote mental health and being active among people

with a migrant background – the experience from SPIRIT partners (Belgium)

Gijs Vercoutere, Minor Ndako, and Wim Poelmansfrom, The Flemish Athletics Federation

11:45: What is the role of young people in a healthy lifestyle and mental health

issues? ENGSO Youth position paper on mental health.

Iva Glibo, ENGSO Youth

12:00: The role of organization to promote well-being and being active – the practice of EL Member Lotteries

Klaoudatos Sokratis and Argiriou Vasilis for OPAP (Greece), and Helseth Anne for Norsk Tipping (Norway)

12:25: Wrap up and conclusion

Background information

Mental health is an essential component of everyone’s life and the WHO constitution itself states: “Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity “. An important implication of this definition is that mental health is more than just the absence of mental disorders or disabilities.

Mental health is a state of well-being in which an individual realizes his/her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and is able to make a contribution to his/her community. It is fundamental to our collective and individual ability as humans to think, emote, interact with each other, earn a living and enjoy life. This implies that mental health and well-being are also influencing everyone’s capability and propension at being active, practicing sport and physical activity and taking care of his/her own health.

The literacy review conducted within the project Sport & Psycho-social Initiative for Inclusive Training (SPIRIT), stresses the fact that grassroots sport focuses on enjoyment and health-related outcomes and not on competition and performance, showing that mental health disorders and social exclusion can negatively affect sport and the overall participation in physical activity.

In the last year and half, the COVID-19 pandemic seriously affected the mental well-being of European citizens. The European WHO Regional office confirmed that the pandemic produced several issues in mental well-being such as fear, worry, grief, elevated stress, anxiety, an expected rise in loneliness, depression, substance misuse and suicidal behaviour. Within this complex scenario, the European Commission, under the impulse of the Commissioner Gabriel, will launch the new initiative Healthy lifestyle for all to promote a cross-sectoral approach to address health and physical activity in all their facets with the aim of establishing a community of practice across generations and social groups. This initiative is closely linked to the European Week of Sport and it will be officially launched during the its opening ceremony in September 2021.

Aligned with the objective of the European Week of Sport, ENGSO and The European Lotteries (EL) decided to unify their efforts building on the outcome of their common project SPIRIT and together with their respective national members, to promote mental health and well-being through sport and physical activity in order to engage citizens at grassroots level to be more active. The objective is to enable their national members to cooperate in engaging grassroots sport clubs, civil society organizations and local authorities in being part of the #BEACTIVE campaign with the specific focus of ensuring health through the promotion of mental health and well-being.