The Sport GVP (Preventing Gender Based Violence in and through Sport) consortium announces the successful completion of its two-year project, culminating in the launch of a comprehensive set of free, multilingual resources designed to make sports environments safer and more inclusive.
Funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union, the project addressed the critical need for targeted interventions to combat gender-based violence (GBV) in sports, a phenomenon that disproportionately affects women and LGBTQIA+ athletes.
Key Achievements and Deliverables
The Sport GVP project, led by the University of Nicosia (Cyprus), has resulted in a comprehensive framework for understanding, preventing, and responding to GBV. Key outputs include:
- Comprehensive Research Report – ’’Gender-Based Violence in Sport – Realities,Challenges and Responses’’: The study involved desk and field studies across all partner countries (Cyprus, Denmark, Greece, Italy, and North Macedonia), highlighting common challenges such as implementation gaps in existing legal frameworks, patriarchal norms, and underreporting. Specifically, more than 50 sport stakeholders, professionals, staff, practitioners, researchers and academics in the fields of gender, gender equality and GBV participated in focus groups while another 50 athletes, coaches, and staff “working on the ground” in sports, were interviewed, all providing useful insights about the status of GBV in sports. These real-based data were critical in guiding the subsequent steps of our work and ensuring that the developed resources and tools precisely met the needs identified by those “working on the ground.”
- The Sport GVP Training Package: A complete set of learning resources, proven through testing to have a 90% satisfaction rate among participants, designed to empower sport professionals. This package includes:
- Curriculum: For sport professionals, staff, and executives on GBV and Sport.
- Toolkit: For sport professionals, officers, practitioners, and stakeholders on GBV and Sport.
- Guide: On Prevention Policies and Practices for Sport Officers & Executives.
- Gamified e-Learning Platform: A major milestone for sustainability, the platform is a free, multilingual (English, Greek, Italian, Macedonian) online resource featuring interactive, gamified modules that host the entire Training Package.
- Dissemination Events and Outreach: To ensure wide visibility and uptake of the project’s outputs, the consortium organised a series of national Info Days and outreach sessions. These events successfully presented the scope, objectives, and deliverables of the project to key national audiences
- National InfoDay: Events were held in Cyprus, Greece, Italy, and North Macedonia, each engaging approximately 30 participants (sport stakeholders, policymakers, and practitioners).
- Online Info session: A dedicated online session was organised for the members of the International Sport and Culture Association (ISCA) to reach a broader European and international audience.
Consortium and Collaboration
The project’s success is attributed to the collaborative effort of the Sport GVP consortium, which included:
- Lead Coordinator: University of Nicosia (Cyprus)
- Partners: International Sport and Culture Association (ISCA, Denmark), KMOP ΕΙΗ (Greece), CESIE ETS (Italy), CARDET (Cyprus), and TAKT (North Macedonia).
The final meeting was held in Copenhagen, Denmark, alongside the MOVE Congress, marking the end of collaborative research, capacity-building, and awareness-raising efforts across Europe.
📣 Impact and Call to Action
The Sport GVP results offer clear, actionable steps to drive systemic change. The project has proven that tackling GBV in sport requires both knowledge and commitment.
“Sport can and must be a driver for equality. Through Sport GVP, we have created the tools to make that vision real,” concluded the Sport GVP Consortium unanimously.
The Consortium now invites every coach, sports leader, and policymaker across Europe to utilise the free resources on the dedicated project website and e-learning platform to join the movement for a safer, more equal future in sport.
Access the Resources:
- Project Website: https://sportgvp.eu/
- E-Learning Platform: https://sportgvp.eu/elearning/
About Sport GVP
The Sport GVP project (Preventing Gender Based Violence in and through Sport) was a two-year initiative funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union (Project Number: 101133538). Its mission was to generate knowledge, build capacity, and raise awareness to prevent and tackle GBV in and through sport in partnering European countries.
