More than 200 disabled citizens from Vila Nova de Famalicão are benefiting from the 'More and Better Years' programme within the scope of Adapted Sports. In the last school year alone, 2021/2022, Vila Nova de Famalicão City Hall invested nearly 350 thousand euros in this part of the programme, an investment that will continue in 2022/2023.
Promoted since 2012 by the local authority's Sports Department, 218 citizens from institutions, schools and the community are currently benefiting from this municipal policy, 201 of whom have intellectual disabilities and 17 motor disabilities.
It should be noted that, after a three-year halt due to the pandemic, the municipal championships of adapted sports returned on 23 February, with a Boccia Tournament at the Vale São Cosme Sports Complex. Besides this sports event, in the first semester of this year, six more municipal initiatives linked to boccia, football, swimming, badminton and tennis are planned, and six national ones, which include goalball and showdown events, as well as boccia erasmus and boccia school sport.
In parallel to these initiatives are taught weekly, under the 'More and Better Years', more than 90 classes in areas such as adaptation to the aquatic environment, swimming, athletics, badminton, boccia and tennis, as well as various complementary sports and socio-cultural activities, which serve to solidify the teaching-learning process, guided by municipal technicians with specific training in the area of physical education and sport, along with two athletes with disabilities.
"We want these citizens to feel included and involved in society, and this is only possible through programmes such as the More and Better Years, which is already a reference at a national level", says the Mayor, Mário Passos, a position corroborated by the Councillor for Sports, Pedro Oliveira, who testifies that
"Famalicão is more and more requested to host national competitions of adapted sports", adding that this interest is due to the fact that the municipality continuously invests in
"measures and programmes that allow the increase of the quality of life of citizens with disabilities and of the indices of physical fitness".
It should be remembered that the municipal programme 'More and Better Years', besides Adapted Sports, also covers Senior Sports and Rehabilitation Sports, providing physical exercise and sports activities on a regular basis to two specific groups of the population: the elderly and the disabled. The intervention is guided by specialized technicians, with disciplines and activities directed to each target audience, including periodic analysis of physical fitness and quality of life of the participants.
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