Middle Rhine Football Association | FSJ: Start into the new voluntary year in sport

Almost one hundred thousand volunteers started a year full of adventure and commitment on September 1, 2024 – more than three thousand of them in sports. For a whole year, they will get hundreds of thousands of children moving in sports clubs and sports associations, support volunteer boards, make the whole day sporty and act as ambassadors for democratic coexistence. They will be accompanied by mentors in their places of work as well as by one hundred other educational specialists who will support them with career orientation and organize educational days so that all volunteers can start their life with a sports license. Participation and co-determination are promoted, for example, through speaker systems.

Financing causes problems in the offers

The start of the volunteer year is overshadowed by financing difficulties. There are fewer federal funds available for the new year than in previous years, as has been extensively reported in recent weeks by Tagesschau and SPIEGEL. The lack of a multi-year federal budget does the rest, so that hundreds of positions have been lost, particularly in the Federal Volunteer Service in Sport, and providers have been forced to significantly reduce seminar groups and deployment places. “The providers are also sending volunteers home who actually already have a deployment place,” complains dsj board member Julian Lagemann. “While politicians are calling for compulsory service, we are preventing long-term commitment from young people.” The dsj, together with a strong alliance of other players, is therefore calling for a legal right to a volunteer service and appropriate funding for the 2025 federal budget, at least at the level of 2024.”

Weeks of action for better financing and legal entitlement are planned for the second half of September, which will take place locally, digitally and in the capital to reach the public, MPs and the ministry.

More on the topic:

You can find out everything about volunteering in sport here.

You can find the German Sports Youth here.