Members of the organizations participating in the project met from 14/06/2018 to 16/06/2018 in London, United Kingdom, for the first Training of the ESY - Easy School for Young Students program. The meeting focused on explaining the principal values and functioning of the Sport & Thought, Football as Therapy organization. 

The project’s innovative approach, applied as a fusion of football and psychodynamic thinking, was described to the other three partners of the project. Accordingly, the relationship between the S&T members and the adolescents, who experience behavioral and emotional difficulties, was explained together with the cooperation between the organization and the youngsters’ respective schools. 

Sport and Thought is a way of working with adolescents that fuces the sport of football and psychodynamic theory to create a space to encourage thought. Acting as a catalyst  to promote emotional and behavioral change. The coached trusted to work with the Sport and Thought model must have an understanding of young people’s thoughts, feelings and realities.

Sport and Thought works with its membership to slow down each individual internal processes and anxieties. This allows each individual to begin to think, and not consistently act on impulse. 

During the three days training the participants had the opportunity to visit the S&T facilities and meet the youngsters in class as well as at the pitch while practicing their favorite sport. 

ESY – Easy School for Young Students partnership comprises the following organizations: Sport & Thought, Football as Therapy (United Kingdom), L' Arca di Noe Associazione ONLUS (Italy), European Institute for Local Development (Greece) and AENIE (Portugal). 

For more information you can visit the official website of the project, www.esyproject.eu, which will be available to the public soon as well as contact the European Institute for Local Development at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..