ENGSO Youth kicks off new year in Vilnius, LT, and confirms key themes for the start of 2024: Youth in sport, European elections and skills of the future
The ENGSO Youth “2024 season” officially kicked off this past weekend in Lithuania. From 9-11 February 2024, the ENGSO Youth Committee and staff members travelled to Vilnius, Lithuania, for the first Committee meeting of 2024.
The meeting was held at the headquarters of the Lithuanian Olympic Committee and hosted with the support of our Secretariat – the Lithuanian Union of Sports Federations.
The meeting was hosted by the ENGSO Youth Chair Ugnė Chmeliauskaitė, and included Vice Chair Erik van Haaren, Committee members Luca Wernert, Valentin Doupona, Alessia De Iulis, Isaiah Kioiloglou and Saga Yli-Hannuksela, as well as Policy and Projects Manager Tiago Guilherme, Projects and Partnerships Manager Nadica Jovanovik and representative of the ENGSO Youth Secretariat (Lithuanian Union of Sports Federations) Ringa Baltrušaitė.
Besides the updates on the development of the organisation, ENGSO Youth Committee and staff members took a moment to engage in a beach volleyball session to keep the physical activity aspect in the agenda.
The two day meeting included an educational session on “Mental Health Rocks! Or how do we talk about sport psychology in the modern world” led by the Vice Chair Erik van Haaren. The ENGSO Youth team practised visualisation and focus exercises in order to try out some of the methods used by sport psychologists.
“Sports psychology plays a crucial role in optimising athletic performance with the impact to enhance mental skills, which can lead to tangible improvements in sports performance and overall well-being,“ Erik van Haaren concluded the session by emphasising the importance of well-being in the sports world.
ENGSO Youth Policy and Projects manager Tiago Guilherme presented the key points of the upcoming position papers which will include:
- Youth in decision making processes with a special focus on LGBTQ+ Youth participation;
- The active voting and sport’s agenda for the European Parliament elections;
- Green skills, eco-social education and the skills for the future.
ENGSO Youth Committee and staff members engaged in brainstorming ideas for the upcoming European Youth and Sport Platform 2025 edition, which is ENGSO Youth flagship event and exciting opportunity for youth and sport sectors to come together!
As a final touch of the weekend, the ENGSO Youth Committee discussed the key highlights from “Youth representation in ENGSO membership” survey and announced the upcoming international activity with the aim to improve meaningful roles of youth in decision-making within ENGSO membership and beyond. Funded by the Council of Europe through the European Youth Foundation, “Youth in Action” will be held on 8-12 May 2024 in Nicosia, Cyprus.
What’s next? The Youth Integrity Ambassadors Programme final conference which is coming on 27 February 2024 to Malmo, Sweden. Besides that, the Committee will gather again together with the ENGSO Executive Committee on 12-14 April in London, UK, hosted by the ENGSO member Sports and Recreation Alliance, while ENGSO Youth Young delegates will join Level Up! Event organised in Belgium during European Youth Week on 12-13 April 2024, and ENGSO Youth staff members will join ENGSO-ENGSO Youth staff meeting in Rome, Italy, on 19-20 April 2024. The meeting will be followed by the international activity “Youth in action” on 8-12 May 2024 (Nicosia, Cyprus) and ENGSO General Assembly and Youth Assembly on 14-16 June 2024 (Vienna, Austria).
Above mentioned activities and actions are contributing to the ENGSO Youth 2024-2027 strategy implementation. You can read it in more detail here.