Young Ambassadors for Sport and Volunteering

The overall project implementation had been done as planned, although some changes within the project partnership had been made. All project objectives were achieved and the activities, which were inside the program had been implemented without any problems or delays. The current small collaborative partnership project aimed at promoting voluntary activities in sport, equal opportunities and awareness of the importance of healthy lifestyle through increased participation in sports for all. The implementation phase included an international training activity for young volunteer sport ambassadors and their strong further involvement in the promotion of sport culture and volunteering in sports within the local communities during the last 2 years. The main work phases, dedicated to local actions, were related to the promotion of sport culture and raising awareness among young people about the importance of being physically active, as well the promotion of volunteering, its values and the benefits, which it brings to society. The project was held through 3 transnational meetings, with the purpose to present the achieved results at each stage and to ensure quality monitoring process. Moreover, the participation of the partner organizations within 2 main working streams planned, has been very positive and successful in terms of support provided to the teams of local ambassadors, contact with external stakeholders for sustaining the cooperation, as well for disseminating the project results and impact. As final output, the project has created an online platform, which has gathered all tangible project results, best practices shared and indications for fellow organizations and stakeholders to follow the same path towards the promotion of sport culture and volunteering in sports, as ways of promoting equal opportunities and combatting social exclusion. Therefore, the achievement of a maximum of successful results out of the project has been guaranteed. The project has proposed structured collaboration between several entities operating in the field of sport and volunteering and has trained a team of 24 young ambassadors, from 4 countries, that later on took the responsibility to further promote the values of sport and volunteering on local level. The project has organized several local activities that have allowed the involvement of many young people from the local areas in sport activities and in educational sessions about volunteering through the methodology of education through sport. The project implementation is evaluated as successful since it solicited interest of local youth in the activities, as well the interest of relevant local stakeholders within the planning of further collaborations on the same topic.The trained young ambassadors had a crucial role within the project implementation since they managed to involve a large amount of their peers locally, and the process proposed peer learning that was strongly appreciated by the local youth. Also, vulnerable populations, youth from disadvantaged backgrounds and NEETs have been reached, and therefore the project implementation contributed positively to increase the awareness of social inclusion, equal opportunities and solidarity, which were set as main values for this project.In general partners declared that they are very satisfied with the collaboration on this project and the results obtained, although the difficulties that have been met in terms of partnership management. After the final evaluation meeting, it became clear that the project had a very positive impact in the local communities, and partners and external new collaborators are ready to work towards sustaining the obtained results and contribute further to the development of social causes that support inclusion and solidarity through education, sport and volunteering activities involving young people.