Centro Giovanile di Formazione Sportiva

CGFS (Centro Giovanile di Formazione Sportiva - Youth Centre for Physical Training) is an association with a long experience in sport, camps and education, and has been active in Prato’s area (Tuscany, Italy) since 1962. Every year about 7000 children and teenagers participate to the activities organized by CGFS (www.cgfs.it). Founded in 2004, CGFS’s objectives are the promotion of sport activities among children, adolescents up to 18 years old in Prato and surrounding areas. The CGFS executive board is composed by stakeholders in the local sports, including public authorities and private company representatives. CGFS employs 16 permanent staff and 120 professionals to lead and run courses and sport activities. In 2006, the Foundation for Rehabilitation of people with physical disabilities was created as a satellite foundation of CGFS (www.fondazionecrida.it). The foundation employs 46 permanent staff including teachers and physiotherapists. The third entity that completes the CGFS group is CFGS srl. The company won in 2008 a tender to manage the 5 swimming facilities of Prato. CGFS srl currently employs 39 staff. CGFS works closely with the municipality of Prato and surrounding areas in order to promote the benefits of physical activity and sports, the real values of sport and the social inclusion, by developing focused didactical initiatives which include formative games for the youngest, different sport disciplines for teenagers and camps. CGFS relies on a solid management structure, qualified staff and a close collaboration with local institutions, Florence University (including the faculty of Scienze Motorie – Physical Education), local school districts and several sport clubs and associations. CGFS has a great experience in carrying out numerous project and initiatives in collaboration with municipalities; an example is the project “Trofeo Città di Prato” (www.cgfs.it/a-scuola) which consist in 5000 hours that the schools of Prato can use for sport activities, educational and training courses for teachers or laboratories for the inclusion of children with disabilities. CGFS is the applicant of the ERASMUS+ Collaborative Partnerships NOVIS - No Violence in Sport (Contract n. 590827-EPP-1-2017-1-IT-SPO-SCP ()), selected for EU co-funding in the Erasmus+ Sport programme 2017 (Collaborative Partnerships). The project started in January 2018 and will end in June 2020. The project partnership consist of 10 organisations (diferent organisations such as National Olympic Committee, sport clubs, associations active in the feld of sport, and regional authority) from 7 Members States (Italy, Romania, Netherland, Spain, Greece, Poland and Bulgaria). The overall purpose of the project is to prevent of and fight against incidents of violence, racism and any form of intolerance in sports, particularly in youth sport sectors and at amateur level. The sports offer range of CGFS consists of a wide choice of the water-related activities, which addressed to different target: from 3-months newborns to aged people. We propose beside the swimming courses, also water-polo, synchronized swimming, triathlon, finswimming and aquafitness. The qualifications and the skills of the water activities technicians are the driving force of the formative offer and they are monitored and updated on regular basis thanks to the involvement of academic professionals. Furthemore the Gym activities represent a flagship of CGFS’s offer that embraces different kind of sport and expressive activities for the kids and guys, like dancing, rhythmic gymnastics and all the disciplines related to artistic and mental field. Also the team sports play an important role for the activities proposed, in fact the main sports are volleyball and basketball, both supported by qualified federal coaches and teachers. Other opportunity is offered by courses of martial arts, like Fencing and Judo and by the teaching of combat Philosophies and fair fight. Beside the prevalent activity related to sports promotion, CGFS has tightened agreements with 19 local sports associations in order to boost the sports dissemination and to enhance the sports professionals training. CGFS has wide offer of activities in the frame of soft sport tourism and adventure travels, as well as, summer and winter camps for children. Lastly CGFS is promoting a number of sport events for citizenship (For example: “Prato Sport Show” and “Prato Urban Run” http://www.pratourbanrun.it/). The mission is to improve the well-being and experiences sharing between children and adults.