Representing the youth voice: ENGSO Youth at EU Sport Forum
The 2024 edition of the EU Sport Forum took place in Liège, Belgium on 16-17 April, during the European Youth Week. ENGSO Youth (EY) Chair Ugne Chmeliauskaite and EY Policy and Projects Manager Tiago Guilherme participated in the event.
Ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympics, the EU Sport Forum revolved around the topics of Olympic values (integrity, sustainability and gender equality), European football, digital age, lifelong sport and the future of sport policy. Youth had their voices heard during the “Youth and health in the digital age” session. The panel had two familiar faces: Zaira Pia Vaccaro, Youth Integrity Ambassador from the YIAP project, who represented ENGSO, and ENGSO Youth Alumni Club member Aladdin AlRifai who added his views on behalf of our friends and HOORAY partners from Budapest Association for International Sports.
In the past years, ENGSO Youth has been continuously working on youth and health related matters and supports the importance of the topic and attention given to the topic during the event. With the DigiSport programme we particularly focused on digital well-being and digital health of young people, using sport as a tool to raise awareness and understanding of how digitalization impacts youth’s health. Going even deeper into the topic, we initiated the HOORAY project which is exploring the impact and positive influence physical activity and sport can have on improving the overall well-being and mental health of young people. Another project that we have joined and that focuses on the well-being of young athletes is YouMind which is coordinated by EUSA and aims to raise awareness about the importance of mental health in sport and to develop different strategies to prevent mental health issues for young athletes.
At the beginning of the European Youth Week, EY kicked off a new awareness-raising activity – the annual 2002 challenge which aligns with the HOORAY project programme and promotes the importance of physical activity and sport for youth mental health.
During the event, ENGSO and ENGSO Youth had a stand where various organisation’s activities were presented. ENGSO Youth focused on Human Rights Education through Sport programme while ENGSO conducted interviews with various sports organisations with the aim to monitor the impact of the European Commission “High Level Group on Gender Equality on Sport” publication and the LGBTQI Strategy of the European Commission.
ENGSO was represented by the Secretary General Sara Massini, Office Director Marie Denitton, EU Advisory Committee Chair Theo Neyenhuis, EU Advisory Committee member Linda Rombolà and Equality Within Sport (EWS) Committee researcher Angelica Saenz.
The EU Sport Forum was an excellent opportunity to catch up with ENGSO Youth Alumni Club members Laura-Maria Lehiste (Tiidla), Bence Garamvölgyi, Orsolya Tolnay, Romain Fermon, Titouan Martin Barré and Ronalds Rezais.