During the European Athletics Young Leaders Forum held on the sidelines of the championships in Amsterdam from 5-10 July, all participants will hear from leaders of the sports industry and take part in seminars and working group activities.
Serbian Nevena Vukasinovic, Secretary General at ENGSO Youth will be delivering some of the workshops in Amsterdam and was interviewed by Katarzyna Wita of Poland, who is part of the communications team in preparation for the Forum.
Katarzyna Wita (KW): You have a wealth of experience and you are the Secretary General of ENGSO Youth (European Non-Governmental Sport Organization Youth). Do you have time to engage yourself as a volunteer too?
Nevena Vukasinovic (NV): First of all, let me stress at how grateful I am for this opportunity to join European Athletics Young Leaders Forum in Amsterdam! There are two reasons behind such excitement. My sport is athletics and I have been competing at 400m for Red Star Belgrade but unfortunately never had the chance to compete in European Athletics events.
Secondly, ENGSO Youth is the first youth council established in European sport structures and as such we strongly support the European Athletics Young Leaders programme.
I have been volunteering all my life. However, in order to sign up as a volunteer I needed to have an important cause behind me. I believe that contributing to humanitarian causes are a win-win situation for our society and allows for self-growth. Volunteering in sports is the perfect arena for youngsters to learn values such as commitment, team-work, functionality and respect.
My first management experience in sports dates back to 2009 when I had been a volunteer for Belgrade’s Universiade. Nowadays, I am proud to say that over 400 volunteers will welcome the European Athletics community next year during the Belgrade 2017 European Indoor Athletics Championships.
Aside from sports, I am also engaged internationally as a Focal Point for Policy at United Nation’s Youth Gateway. I volunteered for this task and I cannot stress enough how much I learn on a daily level from my colleagues and volunteers.
I will never forget the moment when ENGSO awarded me with 'European best volunteer' award in sports and afterwards offered me a job. It is possible as long you dedicate yourself and try hard.
KW: What does ENGSO Youth do? What are the objectives of the organisation and main areas of work?
NV: ENGSO Youth represent a unique avenue where sports and youth meet, encouraging young leaders, volunteers, NEETs and representatives of all disadvantaged groups to engage and act. ENGSO is an umbrella organisation, consisting of 41 member organisations around Europe. Our members come from the sports sector, including high-level players like National Olympic Committees, sports federations and confederations, sports clubs and organisations.
ENGSO Youth is the youth arm of ENGSO, completely autonomous and consists of a board of young delegates representing members from different countries. We raise awareness on youth issues and youth perspectives in sports. We also do advocacy work, trying to discuss policies with the European Union, national institutions and with our different partners.
We are fostering Sport for All along with topics that promote health, inclusion, participation, volunteering of young people in European sports and through international cooperation. Lately we have been working on gender equality, sustainable development and new technologies. ENGSO Youth represents the voice of youth in sports but it goes both ways. We are members of European Youth Forum where we represent a unique entity to bring sport into youth agendas across Europe.
KW: We often hear that the sports world is dominated by men. Meanwhile, as a woman you've come so far. From your point of view, what can we do to increase gender equality in the sports sector?
NV: I do not like to think like that: here I am, and yet I am a young woman. I would like to think that regardless of our gender, here we are - motivated, hard-working and desperate to make our voices heard in sports.
I believe there are two sustainable ways of increasing equality in sports, especially when speaking about gender: calling all stakeholders to include young people into the dialogue and finding good leaders who believe in equality to speak up in order to achieve it.
Getting young people involved will create a new dynamic and shape the vision. If we start engaging more with younger people in decision-making processes we will gain more inclusive structures, more innovative solutions and more creative approaches.
KW: Nevena - you are from Belgrade, and we acknowledge your high involvement in Serbia, working for the National Olympic Committee. How did you achieve working at international level? Was it challenging? Is it rewarding?
I have a stable and strong base in Belgrade where I feel supported by family, friends and colleagues at the National Olympic Committee of Serbia.
I also had the privilege of learning from some truly wise men and women who believe in empowering young people. Nowadays, I am motivated to work and learn from a multi-cultural environment. I then feel more inspired when coming back to Serbia with new thoughts and ideas.
It's thanks to travelling and my experiences that I have had the opportunity to meet all my ENGSO Youth colleagues and develop some friendships and alliances that will be long lasting. One thing that always gets me excited about working abroad is when you meet a person who is a complete stranger one moment, and the next moment you are building the project together, sharing the vision.
I also try not to miss the opportunity to approach decision makers directly and network whenever possible.
KW: And the last question, what tip would you give to the participants of the Young Leaders Forum?
NV: I hope they won’t miss our workshop! They are all invited to follow #SDGyouthsport, keeping in mind to advocate for more sustainable sport, and to remind their teammates and coaches to do so too.
The Forum in Amsterdam will provide a great opportunity for them to exchange and learn from senior decision makers. It's also an important setting for them to develop their network with some many participants from different nationalities present.
I would also use the opportunity to invite them all to two upcoming events organised by ENGSO Youth. The 1st European Sport Hackathon takes place this September during European Week of Sports and next March 2017 is the European Youth Sport Forum. It would be excellent to have an active delegation composed of European Athletics Young Leaders present.