The Provincial Council works with the city councils to guarantee all people the right to practice sports and promote social inclusion. To this end, it provides the councils with a set of technical, economic, and material resources, the 2021 Catalog, endowed with 7.78 million euros.
These resources, which have increased by 86% compared to last year to reduce the impact of covid-19, will be used to reactivate the local sports system, strongly hit by the crisis, like so many other sectors.
Sport for all
If anything has become very evident during the health crisis, it is that sports practice is a basic necessity and, therefore, a service of general interest that administrations must provide to citizens. The Barcelona Provincial Council collaborates with the municipalities of the province so that everyone, including people with special needs, can access sports.
Thus, municipalities have at their disposal sports scholarships for vulnerable groups worth 1 million euros, to facilitate their participation in extracurricular sports activities, camps, or other programs. In addition, 1.5 million euros are provided to local entities to organize sports activities that promote access to sports for the general public. And work is being done to ensure there is an offer of suitable activities for all stages of life, especially to promote active aging; in this sense, the "walks for seniors" stand out, a program with great participation success.
The Barcelona Provincial Council collaborates with the municipalities of the province so that everyone, including people with special needs, can access sportsThe Provincial Council also supports city councils in organizing sporting events of special interest for the territory, with an economic contribution of 400,000 euros. In addition, they are offered a material loan service and technical advice to optimize organization and increase tourist use.
Sport contributes to education in values and to the improvement of people's health and well-being. In the current context, intense work has been done to guarantee safe sports practice and for the environmental and economic sustainability of events.
Commitment to outdoor sports
The Provincial Council sees in the outdoor space a great sports facility, with 1,316 km of sports itineraries and 100 km of coastline in the province of Barcelona. For this reason, it is committed to the use of this public space, which has increased with the irruption of covid-19, and promotes active and inclusive environments, both in natural and urban settings. In this sense, technical support is offered to city councils to diagnose the state of the network of sports itineraries and improve it.
Safeguarding the province's sports system
Consolidating the Network of Local Sports Facilities, made up of 4,918 municipally owned sports facilities, is a challenge for the Barcelona Provincial Council, which participates in the construction, reform, and maintenance of sports facilities. This year, the focus has been on the digitalization of facilities for more efficient management, with a specific contribution of 840,000 euros.
On the other hand, this 2021 the corporation allocates more than 2.5 million euros to the economic reactivation of municipal sports services, whose revenues fell by 95% last year. These can be used to cover their current expenses, and also for city councils to make transfers to non-profit entities for the management of sports facilities and for municipal contributions that rebalance service contracts and concessions affected by covid-19.
And so that sport can be enjoyed throughout the territory, regardless of the municipality where one lives, sports revitalization projects are carried out for groups of small municipalities, offering economic support to those with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants, to contribute to the improvement of the local sports system.
More information at www.diba.cat/es/web/esports/cataleg-de-serveis-2021-23.
This action by the Barcelona Provincial Council responds, especially, to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number 3 "Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages". The 17 SDGs were proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly on September 25, 2015, and are part of the global Agenda for 2030. The Barcelona Provincial Council assumes their fulfillment and deploys its action to support local governments in the province in accordance with these SDGs.
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