Bijeljina is getting informed about Life Champions

On Monday, May 29, 2023, Bijeljina was all about sports, as it was visited by representatives of Development Center for Youth, Trade Union Education Center and RFK Grafičar, as representatives of the Life Champions consortium.

Mutual desire to raise cooperation to a higher level in the future was firstly marked by signing of the Protocol on cooperation between the Faculty of Pedagogy Bijeljina and Faculty of Business Economy Bijeljina of the University of Istočno Sarajevo on one side and representatives of the consortium on another. Next, the Info day was realized with great success, all with the aim of presenting the ideas and plans of the concept of life champions, but also jointly determining the modalities for further cooperation and potential joining of interested actors to the project in the upcoming period.

Plans for the future were discussed with children, parents and coaches, as well as representatives of the professional community, with a special focus on the activities planned for this year and the next one. Through the projection of video material from previous activities, those present could learn more about the very concept of sports-educational activities that are being implemented, and the significant fact that they are completely free for all participants. Aleksandra Knežević and Božo Marić have encouraged the attendees to come forward with creative suggestions so that children and young people from this city soon become part of the big family of Life Champions, pointing out that the Info Day itself is the result of such an initiative initiated by the professor Srđan Lalić, vice chancellor for human and material resources of the University of Istočno Sarajevo.

During the conversation with those present, it has been particularly emphasized that the concept places the coach as an educator in the center, returning sport to its basic postulates – that not everyone can become champions and top athletes, but that they all should and must become top people, champions of life. Therefore, Vladimir Romčević has had an important part of the presentation in front of RFK Grafičar, highlighting exactly what makes this football club different, socially engaged and active in the community.

“In addition to work with coaches which should direct them to a new dimension of communication with the young ones, the consortium especially emphasizes regional camps – each for 150 participants and all of them are free, just to truly make sports accesible for everyone. Also, they have a very interesting format – in addition to sports activities, the participants learn in an interesting way about numerous life topics, visit cultural and historical attractions and connect, showing how future of the region should look like in practice,” emphasized Vladimir Romčević during his speech, expressing satisfaction that the priorities of RFK Grafičar are fully in line with the concept of Life Champions.

The project “Creating Life Champions” is currently being implemented with the support of the European Commission and the UEFA Foundation for Children, and part of the partnership are actors from the sports, education and youth sectors from 8 countries. Support is constantly growing and the consortium is also supported by AMS Osiguranje a.d.o., which will especially backup implementation of the Training for football coaches of younger categories, planned for the end of May 2023.