A week of Inclusion concluded with the Matchday for Inclusion at Werder Bremen

A week of Inclusion concluded with the Matchday for Inclusion at Werder Bremen

The campaign week on the topic of inclusion culminated in a grand finale with the match against Bayer 04 Leverkusen. The home game at the Weserstadion was accompanied by numerous cross-sport and cross-club activities. Werder Bremen looks back on the successful Inclusion Week and in particular the Matchday for Inclusion.

SV Werder Bremen is actively committed to an inclusive society. This happens not only on the pitch with various inclusive sports programmes, such as the Werder Youngstars or ‘Football for the blind’, but also in various areas of the club and company thanks to the inclusion and employment of people with disabilities. With the help of the Matchday for Inclusion, SV Werder Bremen wants to once again put the topic at the centre of social discourse and raise awareness of it.

Review of the inclusion week

The green and white Inclusion Week kicked off on 20 November with two highlights. Firstly, with a workshop on the topic of an inclusive working environment with various players from the field of inclusion and secondly, with the launch of the sale of unique Werder fan merchandise created in cooperation with the artists from the Blaumeier Atelier. On Tuesday, the event continued with an inclusive baking session of Christmas biscuits together with people with disabilities, Coca Cola employees and Werder professionals Leonardo Bittencourt and Anthony Jung.

At the “Grüne Bude”, the event location for the club’s 125th anniversary, the artists from the Blaumeier Atelier painted the three Werder professionals. However, they not only modelled, but also tried their hand at art themselves. The resulting works were integrated into the exhibition of artworks already created during the co-operation.

The exhibition at the “Grüne Bude” was officially opened on Thursday evening as part of a vernissage with a colourful and inclusive programme. All of the pictures created in this collaboration are for sale. The proceeds will benefit the artists of the Blaumeier Atelier. In addition, the Werder women were the first to present the special Blaumeier warm-up shirts during the warm-up on Friday evening before the DFB Cup match against VfL Wolfsburg.

Activities for Inclusion on Matchday

The Werder Youngstars kicked off the matchday itself with a joint training session with the Bayer 04 Leverkusen inclusion team. They kicked, laughed and chatted together on pitch 13 at the Weserstadion in wintry temperatures and bright sunshine. After the joint training session, both teams travelled on to the green and white living room. There, they not only watched the professionals’ match together, but also had the honour of welcoming the professionals from both teams. At this moment, many a childhood dream came true! In addition to the trellis kids, the run-in kids who ran onto the pitch with the players were a mixture of children with and without disabilities, in keeping with the inclusive concept.

While the two inclusion teams were training, the artists from the Blaumeier Atelier were already on site at the stadium. During an inclusive guided tour of the Weserstadion, they were given exciting insights behind the scenes and the processes of a Bundesliga match day. But that wasn’t all: they also got the chance to immerse themselves in the extraordinary stadium atmosphere, as they were able to welcome the Werder players with rapturous applause on their way to warm up in the players’ tunnel shortly before kick-off. There was another highlight for the artist Carl F. from Blaumeier Atelier. As part of the stadium programme, he was interviewed live by stadium announcer Arnd Zeigler during the half-time break.