Life champions against peer violence

The Belgrade Development center for youth held an initial training on December 17-19 in Subotica to mark the launch of the project “Life champions against peer violence”, supported by the Office of the Minister without Portfolio in charge of coordinating activities in the field of gender equality, preventing violence against women and economic and political empowerment of women. Therefore, the participants were welcomed in the introductory part by Aleksandra Krstić-Jović, advisor to Minister Tatjana Macura.

The focus of the training was on sports coaches, with the desire to use the real influence they have on children and young people so that they themselves can contribute to recognizing, responding to, and reducing peer violence. In this regard, experts informed them about the concept and forms of peer violence, mechanisms for recognizing and responding, as well as providing support to those in need. The interactive theoretical part was continued through practical sessions on the football field, since the gathered coaches are expected to organize dynamic workshops aimed at transferring knowledge and information on the sports field in the further course of the project.

“The participants were accompanied today by Milena Gajović and Katarina Jonev Ćiraković, whose portfolio includes dealing with peer violence, both in the real and digital worlds. Additionally, they were introduced to the UEFA online course for the safety of children and young people in sport, all so that they themselves would learn to react correctly and in a timely manner to the occurrence of peer violence. “Given the number of children and young people, as well as all those around them, with whom sports coaches come into contact during the training process, we believe that they represent an extremely important link in the fight against peer violence, and this project is just one of the ways to continue investing in their education and further capacity building,” said Aleksandra Knežević, coordinator of the Life Champions consortium.

The Life Champions concept has been developing with great success in recent years, currently involving over 20 organizations from the sports, education and youth sectors from 10 European countries, with a media partnership with Arena Sport TV. The greatest support for the development of the concept comes from the European Union and the UEFA Foundation for Children, and now its importance has been recognized by the Cabinet of Minister Tatjana Macura.