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The recent Young Leaders Forum in Barcelona has been hailed by European Athletics Director General Christian Milz as “an important step forward in the sport’s efforts to engage young people, and proof of the value of our relationship with UNESCO.”

More than 100 young people from 46 Member Federation countries attended the three-day forum from 27 to 29 July, which was staged in conjunction with the 20th European Athletics Championships.

The forum programme, prepared by European Athletics and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) - the lead agency for physical education and sport in the United Nations system, included top-name guest speakers and discussions of ideas for the future of the sport and how volunteering can be a vehicle for the development of leadership skills and serving local communities.

All-time great Sergey Bubka headed a line-up of guest speakers including Olympic gold medallist Gabriella Szabo and former world record holder Steve Cram, who addressed the attendees on the values of sport and volunteering.

“All the feedback we have been getting from the participants is telling us that it was an outstanding success,” said Milz. “We are really thankful to the organising committee of the 2010 European Athletics Championships in Barcelona, the sports marketing agencies Dentsu and ECM2, and especially UNESCO for all their help in producing such a worthwhile event.”

“Our cooperation with UNESCO on this project highlights how we in athletics are working in new ways to  deliver on our ‘Your Sport for Life’ promise by adding value to young people’s lives in different areas such as health & fitness, informal education and social networking.”

Forum participants responding to an online satisfaction survey have given universally positive feedback on the event, which was a follow-up to a 2006 forum organised in conjunction with the 19th European Athletics Championships in Gothenburg.

“In my opinion the forum will survive as an active emotion in all the participants’ minds and it could be the key to take energy to promote new athletics projects,” wrote one participant.

“Cram, Bubka and Szabo were fantastic. It gave me a lot of new ideas and inspiration,” wrote another.

A video story of the European Athletics-UNESCO Young Leaders Forum has been posted on the European Athletics YouTube channel. The video highlights of the forum can be found here.

The presentations can be found here.

Each evening after the finish of the official forum activities the participants attended the championships, where they had accreditation for the athletes’ seating zone.

Prior to the forum the participants contributed to a four-week online discussion on background issues and prepared displays about athletics in their countries that were exhibited throughout the forum.

“The work of the participants both before and during the forum has been inspirational,” said Milz. “We can see that there are a lot of young people who are ready to give something to athletics and their communities and that the sport has relevance in their lives.”

During the forum, European Athletics introduced a preliminary version of an online social network which aims to recognise and support young volunteers in athletics. The forum participants were invited to brainstorm ideas for the network and become its first members.