MONSTER – Ambassador Training

During the morning session of the first day, some thirty participants attended a presentation of the MONSTER project and the participating partner organisations before a short icebreaker offered them an opportunity to get to know each other better. They were then introduced to the contribution of sports as an enabler to achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the importance of consulting existing policy documents (e.g. action plans) published by sports organisation, governmental bodies and others, and best-practice examples to plan their respective campaigns and identify potential cooperation partners. This was followed by the presentation of an ongoing EU-funded project to promote a European week of sustainable winter sports by the representative of the Berlin-based NEST NGO as a practical example of implementing such a campaign.

During the ensuing World Café, small teams of participants were tasked to come up with an idea for promoting sustainable sports, to comment on the proposals of the other teams and to present the results of their brainstorming in a plenary session. The afternoon session opened with a teambuilding activity to facilitate future collaboration between the ambassadors, as the training was the only time all of them would meet face-to-face. Three local MONSTER ambassadors then moderated short activities to throw light on three key concepts to effectively manage the planned campaigns: SMART goals, stakeholder analysis, and communication.

The second day was embedded in a day-long open European conference on ‘Community – Sustainability – Sport‘ with international and local participants from several related EU-funded projects, during which the MONSTER ambassadors could acquaint themselves with practical actions undertaken in Berlin and across Europe to promote sustainable sports and connect with similarminded young people. After a short presentation of the project, the MONSTER ambassadors, attended a Loesje workshop, during which they worked in smaller teams to create campaign slogans on sustainability but also used it for networking with other young people from European countries. The afternoon session consisted of three thematic panels. During the first on ‘Sustainability and Sports (MONSTER)’, the deputy director of the Landessportbund Berlin, presented the action undertaken by this regional branch of the German Sports Federation to promote sustainability in sports, before engaging in a short debate with a representative from the local NEST NGO working in this field. The second panel, on ‘Sustainability and Community, was dedicated to summarising the results and climate policy and engaging in a debate with guests from the activist group Fridays for Future. The third panel, on ‘Community and Sport, was a debate between the head of the Centre Français de Berlin, a non-profit organisation promoting social and cultural exchanges of young people from France and Germany and hosting events organised by civil society organisations, and two representatives from local NGOs, Safe-Hub Berlin and NARUD, one working in the field of sustainable social inclusion through sports and the other a migrant association. The day closed on a reception offering networking opportunities to the participants.

On the third half-day, the MONSTER ambassadors participated in four round tables moderated by members of the project team from the other MONSTER partner organisations to prepare the planned national pilot actions in Hungary (MESE 2.0), Italy (CUS Torino) and Portugal (ADCS) and the European online awareness campaign for sustainability in sports (Fondazione LINKS), which will take place between mid-March and June 2025.