On the 16th Of June 2023 the University of Cyprus hosted their Multiplier Event for the Erasmus+ Project DIPHE at the social activities building of the new UCY campus in Nicosia.
The Multiplier Event was led by Mr. Raymond Sweeney, CEO of IKKAIDO UK who is the coordinator of this project and has great expertise in the fields of Martial Arts and inclusive teaching practices.
The event was attended by 27 attendees from the field of Martial Arts, including many coaches, trainers, teachers and owners of Martial Art schools in Cyprus.
The event was split into a morning session and an afternoon session.
The morning session focused on introducing the project, its outcomes and its success. Then the attendees were given examples and demonstrations of inclusive teaching practices and they engaged in group activities. One such activity stood out, in which participants were asked to take a conventional sport, game or activity and adapt it to be more inclusive for specific groups. In contrast with popular inclusivity approaches, in our event the participants did not take an activity and alter it to cater only to a specific group of people (like the Paralympic games do). Instead, they were asked to tweak it and make it properly inclusive in such a way that both disabled and non-disabled can engage simultaneously alike without losing the character of the game. This is what we call inclusive inclusion.
The afternoon session took place at a judo class in the athletic facilities of the University Of Cyprus. An introduction of the project was given at the start, and afterwards the participants of the judo class joined a number of inclusive games similar to the morning sessions and were taught about the importance of inclusivity in martial arts in a physically engaging way.
The digital flyer for the event and the agenda can be found here
