August 21, 2026
Sport for All – Breaking Barriers Together
“In May 2026, our team travelled to Szigetszentmárton, Hungary, to take part in the Erasmus+ Youth Exchange “Sport for All – Breaking Barriers Together”, hosted by the Budapest Association for International Sports.
Together with 44 young people from Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Spain, we spent 9 days exploring inclusive and adaptive sport, discussing diversity and equal access, and learning how to make physical activity truly available to everyone.
One of the highlights of the exchange was a game design challenge — participants worked in international groups to create their own team-building activities around themes like communication, trust, inclusion and diversity. Each game was designed to work for mixed abilities, with no special equipment needed, and tested live with the whole group.
Below you will find some inclusion activities created during the project. We encourage you to try them, share them and adapt them for your own community.“
How to foster teamwork and communication within your team
Communication is one of the most important elements of successful teamwork. When people work together, they need to listen, understand one another and find ways to solve problems as a group.
However, communication is not always about speaking. Body language, gestures, active listening and cooperation can also help people understand each other. The activities presented in this session give participants the opportunity to discover these ideas in an active and enjoyable way.
Icebreaker to create an inclusive environment
The first activity, “I Want to Call…”, works as an energiser and helps participants become more comfortable with one another.
- Participants move around the space while music is playing.
- When the music stops, the facilitator gives a specific instruction.
- They might be asked to form groups according to countries, names, birthdays or houses.
- Each instruction requires participants to quickly observe the people around them and find a suitable group.
This game also has an important message about inclusion. Participants should not always choose the same friends. Instead, they are encouraged to meet and cooperate with different people. If someone does not have a matching group, they should be welcomed into another group. This ensures that nobody is excluded and reminds participants that everyone deserves to be part of the activity.
Our team-building exercise
The second activity, “Sapper in Real Life”, presents a greater challenge.
- The participants must cross a field while holding hands and are not allowed to communicate verbally. Because speaking is forbidden, they have to find other ways to communicate.
- They need to pay close attention to movements, reactions and gestures while thinking about how the entire groupcan reach the other side.
Making mistakes is a natural part of the activity. Instead of blaming the person who makes a mistake, the rules give them another opportunity to participate by moving to the end of the line.
This encourages patience and creates a supportive environment. The group also has to wait for the participant to return before continuing, showing that nobody should be left behind.
The reflection after the game allows participants to explore their feelings and experiences. They can consider whether the task was difficult, how they communicated without words and whether they would change their strategy if they played again.
Here you can find a more detailed version of this diversity team building game.
Overall, these activities teach that effective teamwork requires more than simply reaching a goal. It requires trust, patience, creativity and respect to foster a collaborative and safe space. When people support each other and make space for everyone to participate, challenges become easier to overcome and the whole group becomes stronger.
This project was funded by the European Union through the Erasmus+ programme.