Prior to the opening of the MOVE Congress 2014, a kick-off meeting that launched the “European Platform Active Ageing in Sport” (EPAAS) took place, moderated by Herbert Hartmann, ISCA Vice President from Deutscher Turner-Bund (DTB).

About 17 partners were present at the meeting and had the opportunity to present their work in the field, which focused on different angles from research, to training ambassadors for face-to-face approaches to the inactive elderly.

Many goals are envisioned for the new platform, such as establishing new partnerships, stimulating new projects and opening up new cross-sector collaborations. Building constructive partnerships was one of the topics addressed, and EPAAS will provide favourable opportunities to do so, as it is difficult to stand alone in the sport sector, especially when it comes to funding.

“The sport organisations are less able to develop their own strategy, and from our experience, they work for themselves and they don’t spread out, they don’t cooperate,” Hartmann said.

“That is why the challenge to promote physical activity for elderly people is too big for one stakeholder only. Therefore, constructive partnerships between different stakeholders and sectors is a necessary consequence, and EPAAS is a logical remark to that, and it must provide several opportunities.”

There are many burning topics that will be debated in the near future, but what is for sure is that this is a starting point and the platform will provide a base for good cooperation in the grassroots sport sector in the field of Active Ageing.

As Mimi Rodriguez Adami from FIAF SIAF stated:

“Do we need more evidence? What we need is to act!”

That was the atmosphere at the meeting, where all the partners were excited and came with good ideas, determined to the build solid foundations of an effective platform.