FURD's Volunteer Manager Tracy Litterick represented FURD at an international conference, 'Freekick for Equality-Tackling Homophobia and Racism Together' in Bratislava, Slovakia on 26th-28th April.
Tracy was invited to deliver a workshop around 'Sport and Inclusion: Underrepresentation of marginalised groups and minorities', with Des Tomlinson from the Football Association of Ireland and Maurizio Pratesi of the Football Association of Finland. Tracy's contribution to the presentations focused on the barriers to inclusion refugees and asylum seekers face in Sheffield and how the activities with the Belonging group at FURD and the support work of the charity Assist, for whom she also volunteers, address them.
The workshops were very well attended and feedback was very positive particularly from Refugee delegates. Many delegates had little idea about the asylum system in the UK, destitution or living in limbo.
Unfortunately, funding for Tracy’s post at FURD has ended and she is currently working on a voluntary basis to help sustain the Belonging group which she was instrumental in setting up.
The conference was the closing event of the 3 year project "Football for Equality - Tackling racism and homophobia with a focus and Central and Eastern Europe", co-funded by the European Commission, which FURD has contributed to in a number of ways.
The conference aimed to bring together initiatives and grass roots activists who challenge discrimination and inequalities from different angles. An Action Plan has been developed jointly to gain an outlook on the next steps fighting racism and homophobia in sports. See the links below for more information about the project.