«AS Roma is pleased to announce that, since January 2016, the Club promotes and supports the “Calcio Insieme”, a program born from the collaboration between the
Fondazione Roma Cares e l’Associazione dilettantistica “Calcio integrato” the training pitch of Italian Olympic Center “Giulio Onesti” were made available at boys and girls, aged between six and twelve years old, suffering from intellectual disabilities of various levels, supported by a pool of doctors, speech therapists and instructors.
The goals are the development of the physical and psychosocial well-being of children, the reduction of stress related to their living conditions, to increase their self-assessment skills and the motivation to motor activity.
A technical team of AS Roma, with sport psychologists, has developed specific educational methodologies to create a safe, comfortable and never boring environment.
Among the results expected, there is the development of the culture of integration and the education to the values of sport through the soccer.
“Roma is a great social platform, and we are conscious of the responsibility that comes – says the AS Roma general manager, Mauro Baldissoni -. I hope this is one of the many experiments that we will put up in action. Sport has always been an aggregator and along a motivational tool to go over the limits. Have on the pitch children with intellectual disabilities is a chance for them to improve.”
The instructors were joined by a medical team, coordinated by Professor Alberto Cei, scientific director of “Calcio Insieme”, looking closely the progress of these young athletes, looking for improvements in the movement coordination, in their self-awareness or more simply in daily life.
“Soccer can be a vital tool to help children with mental disabilities to develop yourself – explains Patrizia Minocchi, president of ASD Calcio Integrato-. This magical tool, the ball, has already yielded the first results, the children are learning to relate with the others.”»
