The program targets young people studying at school, who should motivate their peers and friends to be physically active and engaged in sports. It opened a few years ago in Wales and has shown great results. Young people are free to choose the physical activity that they enjoy, while ambassadors are expected to draw up a 10-week program for their peers. One of the activities that has become very popular and successful is titled “Get into a good shape for the graduation ball”, however a variety of options depending on the interests of students includes yoga, aerobics, basketball, football, as well as lectures on healthy eating habits. Via the program alongside love for physical activity young ambassadors also cultivate responsibility, cooperativeness, flexibility, good organization skills, confidence and other qualities that will be of great use for their personal and professional development in the future.

From 10 to 12 January 2017, Budapest, Hungary, played host to the first meeting under the project Young Sports Development Ambassadors which will be underway for two years and will focus on volunteer activities in sport aimed to promote social inclusion of young people aged from 16 to 24 years. The main emphasis will be laid on the development of the four young sports development ambassadors from each country who will be authorized to work out projects with target groups including young people from ethnic minorities and of migrant origin. The Bulgarian Sports Development Association is a partner of the project and is in charge of activities in Bulgaria – at the meeting that organization was represented by Joanna Dochevska, the Chairwoman of its Board.

At the European level, the need to use sports for social inclusion of migrants is seen as a priority: “By bringing people together, building communities and fighting attitudes of xenophobia and racism, sport has the potential to make an important contribution to the integration of migrants in the EU”, reads the 2015 European Commission website.

The Young Sports Development Ambassadors (YSDA) project seeks to focus attention on this particular group of young people in the seven partnering countries through youth events initiated by young people, based on volunteering. Micro-projects will be implemented in each country united under the following common topics – inclusion, project management, satisfaction of participants and creating new opportunities for participants. The projects will be executed by four youths in each country who are going to act as young sports development ambassadors and will carry out projects targeted at their peers who experience a stronger need for socialization in society. This project is aimed to deliver added value in the following directions: 1) Exploring the effectiveness of implemented activities for the promotion of sport and physical activity among quoted target groups in seven partnering countries of the EU; 2) Development of a mobile application and a website as sustainable resources; 3) Implementation of various training, promotional and expert modules.

The main activities under the project will include:

1) Training of the young sports development ambassadors – Wales, 2017;

2) Mobility for exchange of experience of the young sports development ambassadors – partnering countries under the project, 2017;

3) Execution of 10 weekly micro-projects among vulnerable communities – local level, 2018;

4) Closing conference of the project – Italy, 2018.

During the meeting all details of the project were discussed, and the schedule of project activities, work activities, communication and logistic details was synchronized. The partners decided to give a start to the procedure for the nomination of four young sports development ambassadors from each country at the beginning of February 2017. The partners under YSDA form an innovative consortium of organizations based in the United Kingdom, Slovenia, Portugal, Italy, Poland, Hungary and Bulgaria. The YSDA Project is co-financed under the Erasmus+ Programme and will be implemented in the course of 24 months.