The third FICEP Youth Congress took place in Munich (Germany) from 10th to 12th of April , 2026, under the motto “”You make the difference” – How can I attract and retain volunteers?”. The aim of this congress was to inform federations and club members about their possibilities to gain new volunteers and approach new target groups, as well as how to communicate with a multilanguage groups.
A total of 42 participants from seven different nations and associations gathered in Germany, including CSR (Romania), DJK (Germany), FSCF (France),NBA L´Aquila (Italy), OREL (Czech Republic), FMST (Mali) and SPORTUNION (Austria).
Right in the middle, not just on the sidelines
This year the congress was supported and organized by young volunteers from the project INVEST.
They took on organizational and logistical tasks, actively helped shape the program, and networked with like-minded people from all over Europe. Whether it was accreditation, security planning, daily scheduling, or the World Café—the volunteers took on responsibilities in all areas and were guided and supported by an experienced coordination team.
Workshops, World Café, and Photo Challenge: A Diverse Program
The conference program offered a varied mix of substantive insights and practical experiences. Friday kicked off with icebreaker games, including a bingo game created by the INVEST volunteers themselves.
Actives starts in the days on Saturday and Sunday gave the participants the right energy for the program.
Saturday featured a keynote presentation by Gitta Axmann on the topic “You make the difference – How can I recruit and retain volunteers?” as well as a World Café led by the volunteers.
In the afternoon, they organized a photo challenge through Munich. Sunday was dedicated to personal development: In two workshops, participants explored social linguistic facilitation in multilingual groups as well as sports as a tool for diversity and inclusion.
On Sunday the workshop “Social Linguistic Animation – A method to support communication and raise inclusive behavior in multilingual camps” was led by expert Eike Totter (https://www.totter.eu/)
The workshop “Breaking Barriers: Sport as a Tool for Diversity & Inclusion” was led by expert Lisa Kalina (Equaletics)
The next Youth Congress will be in Poland or Austria from 2nd to 4th of April 2027.
Find our more about the INVEST project
