ESC: Youth and Sports Volunteers in Taekwondo

Our federation works directly with clubs operating throughout Turkey. These clubs, on the other hand, host hundreds of thousands of children and young people starting from the age of 5 and up to the age of 30. Since our federation is the umbrella institution, we want to do the necessary work to pave the way for our clubs in this field and to enable our athletes to benefit from EU opportunities. An EU project team consisting of volunteers was formed within our federation. We provide sportive benefits to our youth by organizing dozens of activities, including national and international activities, or by participating in the activities of other countries with our national teams. However, we want to raise awareness and encourage these athletes about EU opportunities. In this sense, we would like to encourage our athletes by obtaining a quality certificate and by assigning our volunteers, especially in international competitions, to the competitions in which thousands of our young participate, on the condition of ensuring the visibility of this program. In the following periods, we want to encourage our clubs, which are a very large community, or as the direct sending organization, we want to lead our athletes who meet the criteria, primarily to benefit from these opportunities. The majority of our athletes consist of children and young people with limited opportunities. Most of our youth give priority to sports. However, we observe that they are not aware of EU opportunities. As the Federation, we want to contribute to our athletes not only in terms of sports, but also in terms of socio-cultural, language learning and economic aspects. Our young people who benefit from volunteering projects will be curious about the culture, economy and language of the countries they visit or the young people who come to our country voluntarily, and they will try to learn and research. They will have the opportunity to partner, cooperate or transfer good practice with different countries. In addition to improving themselves, these young people, who will be the coaches and teachers of the future, will provide better quality education to the next generations and support them to benefit from EU opportunities. Our federation, which is a leading organization, will set an example for taekwondo clubs that are active even in the most remote corners of our country, and will pave the way for tens of thousands of athletes participating in competitions. It will also inform them of EU opportunities and guide them to take advantage of it. As a federation, we want to benefit from EU opportunities and benefit more effectively from our federation's volunteering projects and Erasmus+ opportunities.