Gloucestershire Youth in Action project takes shape

Gloucestershire Youth Service has been successful in securing European funding for a two year project based on Young People’s participation in sport, which will end with a huge week of events to coincide with the final week of the London Olympics.

Gloucestershire is the only UK organisation amongst the 23 successful partnerships - 67 having applied originally across Europe. The project is the brain child of Martin Kimber, who co-ordinates the Youth Service’s International Projects, and is also an executive member of the Cheltenham Twinning Association. Martin said, “The next 8 years of Olympic activity will be very close to Gloucestershire: 2012, summer games in nearby London; 2014 winter games will be at Cheltenham’s Russian twin town of Sochi; 2016 summer games in Rio will include two new sports, Rugby 7s and Golf, which are dear to this county, and Cheltenham’s French twin town, Annecy, is a strong favourite to be awarded the 2018 winter games. The basis of our two year project is to train up a number of young people in the two new Olympic sports, so that they can take them out to our 8 partner countries and run training and direct activities there for local children in 2011 to the summer of 2012. The countries involved will be France, Germany, Poland, Russia, Sweden, Hungary, the Netherlands and Finland, who will each send 4 of their young participants to the final residential week in August 2012”.

The estimated cost of the project is €73,000, 50% of which is funded by the EU Youth in Action programme, with the rest being raised by the participants. Martin is especially grateful for the help and support of Sue Stoner at Gloucestershire’s European Office, and Mary Wormington at the International Education Office on this project.