The EMÅ project

A pilot project in Umeå to create a moving society.

The initiative is a new pilot project of Change the game where educators, leaders and parents in some neighborhoods will be trained in physical literacy, or motion solicitude, as we call it in Swedish. During the 2018-19 academic year, they should be able to try to re-lead physical activities in a new way. The ambition is to have more physically active and well-being children and give them better conditions for both school and leisure activities.

Physical literacy – The new concept and perspective to increase the desire, ability and opportunity to move – will now be tested in practice in the districts of Ersboda, Mariehem and Ålidhem. The pilot project is facilitated by the SISU Athletes and is conducted in cooperation with Umeå municipality’s leisure and school administration.

– We know that children and young people move less and end up with sports and that everyone does not get the same right of movement, so it’s obvious to us that we are really involved in this venture, “said Niclas Bromark, District Sports Director.

On April 18-19 April, educators and athletes in the neighborhoods will be given the opportunity to train themselves in physical literacy.

– It is very important to test physical activities in schools that can both increase the ability and inner motivation to move as it can develop the conditions for both the wellbeing of children and their achievements, “says Fredrik Strandgren, strategist of primary school in Umeå municipality.

Dr. Dean Kriellaars will be the course leader for the programs. Dean is a professor at the Manitoba University of Canada and one of the world’s leading experts in physical literacy, which we choose in Sweden to call for movement.

– We have had a great opportunity, through cooperation with Dean Kriellaars, to develop Umeå as a moving society and also help other municipalities in the county and the country to make the same trip, says Tom Englén, Heja’s project manager for Change the game.