YOULEAD – THE DEVELOPMENT OF FUTURE SPORTS MANAGERS CONTINUES

Training young people through intergenerational dialogue and learning by doing: the project led by CSIT continues. Participants will now have to map good practices in the field of sports camp organization.

To develop a platform of sports managers by learning by doing and intergenerational dialogue, through the active participation in international sports camps. This is the goal of “YouLEAD – improving skills in the field of grassroot sport in young people”, a EU-funded project, which is led by CSIT. The partners coming from all around Europe are AiCS (Italy), ASKÖ (Austria), HLA (Croatia), KALEV (Estonia), TUL (Finland) and UCEC (Spain).

The project received funding from the Erasmus+ program, in the sport chapter, for a third time in a row and as a continuation of YouAca, Youth Academy of grassroots sport.

YouLEAD’s goal is to promote the training of young people in and through sport with a special focus on promoting skills, particularly in the field of international camps. These are also sectors in which CSIT and its partners have decided to invest as a driving force for sustainable development of the organizations as well as as a ground on which to grow the skills of young people.

Last March, the first online meeting was held after the selection of participants at national level. The meeting was an opportunity for the 33 participants to get to know each other and introduce themselves bringing a childhood memory of their previous experience in a camp. Subsequently, the participants identified the elements characterizing the camps, including location, logistics, and activities – but especially “memories”: in fact, everyone agreed that a camp is successful when the participants feel part of a bigger group and when you leave enriched with new relationships.

The meeting was attended by the project manager Cosimo Renzi (CSIT international project office), Anu Rajajarvi (CSIT vice president and coordinator of the youth policy sector) and Riku Ahola (trainer and former vice president of TUL). At the meeting, the students were able to learn from the experience of Anna-Katrina Salmikangas, senior researcher at the University of Jyväskylä-Finland, who explained the essential knowledge on the values and impact that a camp can have from a sociological point of view.

Now it’s again the turn of the young leaders, who will study the good practices of the organizations in terms of camp at national level.

At the end of the project each group will present their idea of an innovative camp. Meanwhile CSIT together with AiCS is finalizing the preparations to host the second meeting during the International Youth Sport Camp in Lido di Ostia from 21 to 24 July.