Association Régionale UISP-USEP Alpes-Méditerranée

The Association Eurorégionale Alps Mediterranée was founded in 2013. It gathers among its members associations at regional, provincial and local level of the five regions that compose it, i.e. the three Italian regions Piemonte, Liguria and Valle d’Aosta and the two French regions PACA - Provence, Alpes, Cote d’Azur and AURA –Auvergne Rhône Alpes.

The members are all non profit Associations operating in the field of social and sport promotion, recognized by their respective state bodies. The membership composition is varied, representing all age groups but where the younger generations clearly prevail. Another element is the strong presence of teachers and social workers. This association aims to participate in the education of the citizen of Europe by exchanges, meetings, training, sports, cultural, linguistic, educational actions for children, and mainly young people, also involving adults.

One of the main purposes of the Euroregional Association is to correlate citizens residing in different countries, create a path of active citizenship through various kinds of project and activities in the sport and cultural field, interchanging the various experiences. Another objective is to involve the member associations of the five European regions in training sessions and reciprocal visits to the various territories. It is therefore important to be able to know the various realities and history of each individual country, looking for a common denominator, even in the individual peculiarities, to develop individual projects.

Over the years, various interchange initiatives have taken place both in the sport and in the cultural field. For example, French, Italian and Spanish school classes exchanged visits to their respective territories, taking part in initiatives also programmed by local authorities; visiting school complexes, museums, territories, along roads and paths, elaborating together songs, games, educational courses and convivial moments. The experiences gained push us towards a future where it is more and more primary, in a moment where the closing pushes between the various states prevail, opening to new forms of aggregation supported by training moments starting from adults in their capacity as trainers, that manage to overcome barriers and fences.

In particular, the Association believes that traveling through the territories by telling and discovering stories, customs, contributes to bringing young people above all together, causing prejudices to decay. At the same time, the activity in the environment allows to activate increasingly neglected motor forms among the younger generations located in overcrowded urban areas.