<< Background >>Turkey Special Athletes Sports Federation (TOSSFED) carries out very important activities with a total of 1679 coaches in 81 provinces of Turkey to provide equality of opportunity and to grow more intellectually disabled (ID) athletes. The coaches of TOSSFED work entirely on the basis of VOLUNTEERING and do not get any wages. In order to train ID athletes, it is necessary to establish cooperation with the family first. However, the Federation and volunteer coaches are unfortunately not capable of managing cooperation with each other because 90% of our federation's coaches are only sports-based without a special education basis. For this reason, even if they are successful in sports coaching, they are quite lacking in family management and non-sports management. They face the challenges of a lack of accessible information and required skills to guide parents with ID athletes. To effectively engage with these families, coaches need to feel competent, confident and adequately resourced. Therefore, it is very important for the coaches who deal with ID athletes to act as an adult educator.Family is the most important factor in the lives of these athletes and mentally disabled people consider their families as role models for them. The volunteer coaches must gain adult education skills in order to guide and manage families with ID athletes. At this point, all federations within the project are desirous of offering compulsory training to volunteer coaches. However, they have no trainings or in-service training activities. Families with ID athletes are also quite insufficient in guiding or approaching their children as well as cooperating with coaches. Families' skills need to be developed to ensure ID athletes have both more successful and sustainable sports careers.Especially the families within the Federations are very inadequate in guiding their children and supporting them in non-sports activities. This inadequacy was felt much more clearly in the Covid-19 Pandemic. Due to the training limitations in the pandemic, the coaches developed a family-supported remote training program. However, these exercises were very inefficient due to the insufficiency of the families and the inadequacy of the coaches in family cooperation. In this process, the physical and mental health status of ID athletes unfortunately regressed. That’s why families with ID athletes need to develop their key skills at a certain level and gain the ability to manage their children for sustainable careers of the ID athletes as well as families’ mental health. Our federation has the authority to direct families and open courses through Public Education Centers in cooperation with the Ministry of National Education. At this point, a standard framework program is also necessary to increase the cooperation of families with ID athletes and to increase their own competencies.All specified needs are common in the participating federations and also many other federations in the EU. Our federation has been working with other Federations in Europe for 1,5 years to develop some standard training materials because other Special Athletes Federations in the EU also experiencing such problems on family management.<< Objectives >>Erasmus+ Adult Education Programme offers an opportunity to meet the identified needs at the EU level. It is very important to find solutions to the needs with a joint study.Within this background, the overall objective of the project is to empower the Special Athletes Federations in Europe on family management. The specific aims of the project are;-to increase competencies of coaches on family management and the transfer of learning situations into families of ID athletes-to increase knowledge and the basic skills of families of ID athletes to be able to better support their ID athletes -to develop inter-connected partnerships between the federations of ID athletes and educational institutions across the EU on the common needsIn addition, the issues we want to achieve with the project, specific to the participants, participating institutions and target groups, are as follows;- To improve participating trainers and coaches' skills in special education as well as in family support programs- To connect and engage the participants more closely with their colleagues abroad, acquire transversal skills and act together to solve similar problems.- To improve the motivation and progress training of the participants to their work and to provide them with better quality service by gaining new perspectives.- To ensure that participating Federations provide better quality service in family support programs- To guide families of ID athletes in non-sports activities and homeschooling of their children and provide better counselling to them- To provide federations with standard training programs for volunteer coaches and their families and to increase the quality of in-service training; also, to design these innovative training content to enable federations to equip volunteer coaches with a certain level of competence.- To improve the cooperation of Special Athletes Federations with educational institutions and to create a sustainable mechanism between them- As a horizontal target, to support the sports careers of ID athletes and to contribute to their social inclusion and to encourage more individuals with intellectual disabilities to the sports field- To contribute to the mental health of families by providing better quality training programs- Strengthening families 'access to education and making use of federations' services for disadvantaged families; Establishing local communities through coaches, strengthening the dialogue of families with each other and contributing to their social inclusion- Conducting activities that will contribute to Erasmus + Priorities<< Implementation >>The most important activities for the achievement of the project and the delivery of the expected results;1. Producing the Main Outputs of the Project2. Transnational Meetings3. Training of Coaches: LTT activity4. Multiplier Events1. Producing the main outputs of the projectProducing project outputs is the most important activity in the project. The fact that these activities make up a large share of the budget shows the importance level. 3 main outputs will be produced within the project.- Training Module to Coaches of ID AthletesThis output will enable the development of family management and counseling skills of volunteer coaches working in federations. Increasing the communication and cooperation of coaches with families, which is one of the most important project objectives, will be realized by producing this output and training the coaches through this output. This output will develop voluntary coaches' special education-based adult education skills. In addition, this training module will become mandatory in federations for new coaches who want to become volunteer coaches.- Training Module to Coaches of ID AthletesThis output will be produced for families to acquire the minimum skills to support and develop their children's sports careers. Through this framework program, families will become more competent and informed in providing healthcare, wellbeing, non-sport activities, homeschooling to their children. This program will also enhance cooperation between coaches. Increasing the skills of families will contribute not only to their children but also to their own mental health and social inclusion.One of the important project goals will be achieved through the integration of these two training materials in the current programs of the participating federations. With these outputs, federations will not only create a standard training program for coaches but also gain the ability to train families. Federations can organize in-service trainings, webinars and training organizations by using these outputs.- International e-Learning PlatformThis platform will increase the distance learning opportunities of coaches and families. In this way, it will be possible to reach coaches and families in disadvantaged geographies. This platform will enrich the limited international resources on the topic. In addition, increasing the usage of this platform to international dimensions will enable the project results to reach more target groups.The main outputs will increase the confidence of the federations in volunteer coaches, equip high-quality training materials and increase cooperation with families. Other activities to be carried out within the project will support the production of these outputs in better quality and reach more target groups.2. Transnational MeetingsThese meetings will support the preliminary studies, development stages and quality assessment stages of the production of project outputs, as well as increasing the know-how sharing and cooperation between institutions. For this purpose, 5 transnational meetings will be held in certain periods in each participating country.3. Training of Coaches: LTT activityParticipants who work in the federations and have the status of trainers will participate in the short-term training mobility in FHZ, Serbia. Since this activity will improve the special education knowledge and family education skills of the people who will produce the project outputs, it will be a very important activity for the production of the project outputs in quality standards. In addition, this activity will create a long-term impact as it will increase the competence of the federations' staff who will provide post-project training activities.4. Multiplier EventsMultiplier events will be organized in each country. It will significantly increase the impact area of the project. Multiplier events will be organized for target groups, especially Virtus, who can use the project outputs.<< Results >>The project will produce both tangible and intangible results on participants, target groups, participating institutions, and large-scale. The most significant tangible results of the project will be the three main outputs. These outputs will especially enable participating federations to establish coach and family support programs and to create in-service training programs. They will meet the needs of their target groups with comprehensive and reliable training resources in an effective way. The project will enable all partner institutions to form transnational cooperation to develop a common framework for family management training for both trainers and families. With the completion of the project and integration of the outputs into the annual activities of the partner federations, the quality of services they provide to coaches and families will increase in terms of improving family management training and counselling and self-learning services. Furthermore, an e-learning platform for special athletes’ coaches will add value to all partner institutions' capacity and articulate the digital platforms into their existing system.The project will have intangible results through the production of tangible results, transnational meetings, multiplier events, and dissemination activities such as enhancing know-how for all partners, building capacities and professionalism to work at the EU level, and increasing their recognition across Europe. Trainers from the federations who will participate in the project will increase their skills in the training of trainers. In this way, they will gain the ability to provide in-service training to coaches and families of ID athletes. Moreover, all participants will increase their various competencies such as management, team work, linguistic, literature review, organization competencies. The project results will prepare suitable conditions for them to create more professional, modern, and inclusive working environments in their institutions. Other expected results of the project as follows:•The coaches of special athletes will increase the opportunities for the professional development in special education based-family education.•The coaches will enhance their communication and coordination skills with the families of special athletes as well as non-sports activities to support the improvement of their careers as a whole.•For the families of special athletes, the results of the project will equip families with the necessary skills and competencies to become competent and confident while supporting their children's sports careers.•Families of ID athletes will become more confident and healthier towards the sports activities of their children and bcome more collaborative to the Federations.•The motivation of the federations to work with supporting institutions in line with their needs will increase. In particular, our federation will deliver the framework program to be implemented to families in cooperation with public education centers.•At the societal level, increasing the coordination between families and trainers and their competencies will promote the visibility of special athletes federations worldwide.•The results of the project will raise awareness about the importance of sports for people with disabilities’ well-being and social inclusion.•The results of the project will provide a better understanding of practices and training on family management in sports activities of people with disabilities across countries.•It is among the expected results to increase the researches on coaches and families of special athletes in special education.•The project will also increase the Federations’ reputation on VIRTUS, the federations' umbrella organization in Europe.•One of the most important long-term results of the project will be both gaining more special athletes and having more successful careers for current athletes.