Norway with the Orienteering Clubs in Østfold will host the World Orienteering Championships in August 2019. In addition to arrang the best WOC ever, the clubs want to use the opportunity that a World Championships provide, to work with the visibility of the sport and to recruit more youngsters to the sport of orienteering. The project “FinnFram in Østfold” has been started.
The project is funded by Sparebankstiftelsen DNB (200 000 Euros) and therefore it is free for schools and municipalities to participate. The orienteering clubs in Østfold, together with the project leader, will be responsible for developing maps, competence raising plans and activities.
Things are happening in Østfold at the moment and the they are now starting to get started with the Finn Frem project in Østfold. Some of what the project is dealing with now is to develop an online map portal where all school maps can be stored. The goal of this is that it should be simple and practical to use so that teachers at the local schools benefit from it. Here they will be able to find existing maps for the area, tips for good activities and exercises as well as general information of orienteering. This tool is being developed in cooperation with students from Østfold University College, and the hole project believe that this will help school education in orienteering to be even better.
In cooperation with the local orienteering clubs in Østfold, the project are also drawing school maps for the local schools. This is extensive work as there are more than 130 schools in the county. It is therefore important to get started quickly. The project would like to focus specifically on youngsters in the county in connection with the project “Finn Frem” in Østfold. They hope that they can get more young people interested in mapping and through this project the project hope that they can gain more experience and knowledge about how a map is made.
The project leader, Svend Sondre Frøshaug, says;
– I’m really looking forward to spreading information with pleasure among teachers, school children and school mates, their families in Østfold during next years. If children and young people can have a positive encounter with our wonderful sport through school teaching, I belief that this will lead us to more participants in orienteering.
“FinnFram in Østfold” is carried out in the period 1.1.2018 – 1.8.2020