Impact

The impact our project produces is short, medium and long term. While the short and medium-term impact is evident and can be easily measured as will be observed below, the long term impact of our project is more difficult to evaluate. In long term our project aims to change attitudes and challenge preconceived ideas that limit people facing disabilities to practice tandem flights only with specialized trikes and wheelchairs. Our project demonstrated by developing a complete methodology that the vast majority of people facing disabilities can take part in tandem flights with a regular harness. The envisaged long term impact of our project is to contribute to increasing the accessibility of people facing disability to tandem paragliding – an excellent HEPA.

Our project produced an impact on different stakeholders starting with the organisations involved in its implementations, continuing to other organisations that took part in sharing its results and finishing with people facing disabilities who enjoy a greater inclusion towards practicing tandem paragliding.

Impact on partner organisations:

This project reinforced the links between the five partner organisations with such different backgrounds. The aim to broaden the access of people facing disability to tandem paragliding was not an easy one to achieve but by bringing together organisations focused on paragliding as well on the capacitation of people facing disability we have achieved this goal.

The COVID-19 pandemic although a substantial challenge in reaching the objectives of our project made the project team to work, even more, to find opportunities and alternatives to succeed in implementing our activities. Overall this pandemic made our project team more resilient and capable of achieving great results in very difficult contexts.

Impact on other organisations active in the field of paragliding:

The paragliding partner organisations in this project are providing free of charge tandem flights for people facing disabilities as result of this project. Our methodology produced an impact on such organisations because it demonstrated how people facing disabilities can be included in tandem paragliding using a regular harness. Therefore, the paragliding sport clubs and organisations managed to broaden inclusion towards tandem flights to people facing disabilities. Moreover, our project contributed by capacitating representatives of paragliding organisations in using the proposed methodology in promoting tandem paragliding as an excellent HEPA activity accessible to almost everybody. The methodology we created benefits sport organisations in increasing the accessibility to tandem paragliding.

Impact on other organisations focused on empowering people facing disability:

All our partners cooperated with organisations focused on empowering people facing disability in conducting the Flight Activities (F1-F4). Our project produced an impact on such organisations because it provided a new tool of empowering people facing disabilities to take part in tandem paragliding a HEPA that at first sight seemed highly restricted to them.

Our project produced the biggest impact on people facing disability, especially on the courageous passengers who experienced the flights since it empowered them and contributed to their self-esteem. Moreover, they became ambassadors of our project promoting tandem paragliding to their families, friends as well as other people facing disabilities.

Policy Impact:

Our project produced an impact on the development of policy in the field of sport as follows:

 By contributing to reaching the following priorities of the Third EU Work Plan for Sport (2017-2020):

-Sport and society – by the social inclusion dimension our project promotes via increasing the accessibility of people facing disability to tandem paragliding an excellent HEPA;

-Economic dimension of sport – by providing innovation in sport via the methodology we have created to increase the number of flying sites accessible to passengers facing disability by using the regular harness in conducting such tandem flights.

Our project respects one objective of the E+ Sport (Art. 16 of the E+ Regulation): to promote social inclusion, equal opportunities and health-enhancing physical activity (HEPA) through increased participation in sport and voluntary activities in sport.

Our project is perfectly aligned with the EU motto “Unity in diversity” by:

-creating a partnership between five partners from four countries, highly specialized in different fields of activities, but with the same objective of creating a unique methodology of “Tandem paragliding with disabled people using regular passenger harness”;

-the Flight Activities from Hungary, Czech Republic and France were conducted by two flying experts from Romania, implying not only the interaction of the RO tandem pilots with disabled peoples from other countries but also interactions and information exchanges between the RO tandem pilots with site owners/paragliding schools/paragliding pilots from CZ, HU and FR. These interactions of people of different profiles and backgrounds, from several EU countries, occurred under our unique E+ Sport Project.

Our project is a best-case example for the implementation of the E+ priority of protection and safety of the participants. During this project, extensive care and efforts were invested in designing a methodology that provides maximum safety for people facing disability while engaging in tandem flights. This focus on the protection and safety of our participants not only protected us from any incident or accident during all the flight Activities but also helped us to set up procedures that can be easily be followed by any tandem pilot who reads the booklet and contribute to the safety of tandem paragliding.