Sport volunteering

The European Parliament and the European Council established , the 6th of February 2003, the European Year for Education in Sport 2004. On this special occasion, it is useful to underline the fundamental role played by volunteering in education through sport. Voluntary work is essential for sports associations as they can't afford so many paid-staffs to run their activities ; youngsters in Europe could be more involved in sports associations if their voluntary work were more recognized and could be used outside the association (for instance in their Education Curriculum). Sport associations should be given a chance to find more volunteers among youngsters and for youngsters to build a bridge between sport and education through a voluntary work. Thanks to volunteering, sport could be open to the general population : 32% of the population practice a sport in France, 47% in Irland or 70% in Finland.

European Year for Education in Sport (EYES 2004)

The main goals of the EYES are :

• to raise awareness of educational and sports organisations of the need for cooperation to develop education through sport ;
• to take advantage of the vales conveyed by psort to increase knowledge and skills (such as leadership, solidarity, fair-play) ;
• to raise awareness of the positive contribution made by voluntary work to informal education, particularly for young people ;
• to promote the educational vaue of mobility and pupil exchanges , particularly in a multicultural environment ;
• to encourage the exchange of good practice conveying the potential role of sport in education systems ;
• to establish a better balance between intelletual and physical activities during school ;
• to examine th eproblems linked to the education of young sportsmen and women engaged in competitive sport.

Volunteering and sport

Volunteering is the touchstone of sport. Youngsters in Europe are more and more concerned by voluntary work : between 35% (in France) and 45% (in the United Kingdom) have been volunteers (European team on Youth Volunteering issues, IRIV, Paris, 2001). Their first domain of involvement is sport and leisure.

Volunteering may be a fundamuntal step for all young people to prepare their social and professional life : feeling useful for the collectivity, meeting people they wouldn't have had the chance to meet in their normal life, acquiring skills and qualifications. Volunteering offers opportunities to take on stimulating work, to develop skills, to explore different careers and to get work experience. In times where studies are longer and entering the labour market is more difficult (unemployment rates are higher in the younger population), young people would involve in voluntary experiments that will enrich their background, apart from their previous education or background. Sport is a priviledged domain of involvement for youngsters as you easily become a volunteer by practising a sport.

How volunteering in sport can promote specific qualities among youngsters such as teamwork, participation, solidarity, tolerance and mutual understanding in a multicultural environment. What is the positive contribution made by voluntary work to informal education, particularly for young people among sport associations. Which are the concrete measures to bridge the gap between rhetoric (volunteering is often celebrated) and reality (very few is done to assess volunteering in sport associations especially for youngsters) ?

Volunteering has proved its impact on formal education : youngsters may improve theoretical knowledge acquired at school or acquire new skills or qualifications such as technical skills linked to a sport activity (when they are voluntary trainers or referees)

Volunteering has also proved its impact on non-formal education : through a voluntary work, youngsters develop informal knowledge such as teamwork, participation, citizenship, solidarity, mutal understanding but also, on a personal level, self esteem and self confidence.

Volunteering is a transversal approach that links sport with education ; voluntary work in sport allows youngsters to develop formal and non-formal skills and qualifications, to improve specific qualities (mutual aid, altruism, cooperative spirit) ; spirit (mens sana) and body (mens sano) work together

Further information

Interventions of iriv for the comité départemental olympique et sportif des Yvelines and the directions départementales de la jeunesse et des sports of Charente maritime and of l'Aveyron.

 

Halba (Bénédicte), Bénévolat et volontariat en France et dans le monde, La Documentation française, Paris, 2003.

Halba (Bénédicte), Economie du sport, economica, Paris, 1997.

 

  © IRIV , Paris, 2004