The International Centre for Sport Security (ICSS), through its programme “Save the Dream”, and the Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne University organised the EU-funded First International Conference on Sport Volunteerism (Paris 2019) at the Maison du Handball in Creteil in Paris recently.
The conference was organised within the framework Empowering Youth Volunteers through Sport (EYVOL) project, a transnational and multi-sectoral initiative co-funded by the European Union.
During the conference, Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne University, presented the EYVOL Guide on Best Practices in Volunteering for Social Inclusion through Sport, based on an initial analysis of 83 case studies gathered across the world from key organisations working with sport volunteers. The guide is a collection of volunteer sport experiences for the empowerment of youth at grassroots, local, national, regional and international level.
Mohamed bin Hanzab, president, ICSS, said during the conference that time has come to form a global identity and draft a framework for sports volunteering mechanisms to serve as a platform for shaping the identity of the sector in a way that enables young volunteers through an international umbrella for sports volunteering.
He added that ICSS put forward this file through EYVOL project which is funded by the EU and supported by the United Nations, thus creating a good opportunity to form an international platform to discuss all issues related to volunteering in the field of sports.
Save the Dream executive director Massimiliano Montanari said, “Through sport volunteering we are empowering youth and promoting the development of soft and employability skills.”
International Truce Centre director Constantinos Filis said that volunteerism inspires and unites people under a common cause which must not be motivated by sordid gain.
The EU-funded EYVOL project is supported by the UN through the UN Alliance of Civilisations (UNAOC). The International Centre for Sport Security (ICSS) through Save the Dream programme is among the main partners of the projects along with several international organisations including the Comitato Olimpico Nazionale Italiano (CONI).
The two-year project aims at developing a common framework for sports volunteerism under the supervision of the United Nation. It was officially announced in November 2018 at the UN headquarters in Geneva in the presence of the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
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