Lifesaving Network sequel - Heroes’ Zone

ongoing

Youth across Europe face significant barriers to civic participation, often feeling disconnected from decision-making processes and lacking opportunities to engage meaningfully in their communities. The situation is even harder for marginalized youth. Their exclusion is worsen by socio-economic barriers, geographic isolation, discrimination, and limited access to educational and leadership development opportunities. Traditional civic engagement approaches fail to resonate with youth in general. Relying on outdated, top-down models that do not provide practical engagement pathways is further contributing to disengagement and social exclusion. At the same time, drowning remains a critical yet overlooked public issue, disproportionately affecting vulnerable communities due to a lack of water safety awareness and education. Existing awareness initiatives are often ineffective in reaching these communities, leaving them without essential life-saving knowledge and skills. Our project presents an innovative and engaging solution by integrating Lifesaving sport as a tool for youth empowerment, inclusion, and civic engagement. By transforming Lifesaving disciplines into a non-formal education framework, the project will equip youth with leadership, advocacy, and community engagement skills, while simultaneously promoting drowning prevention and water safety awareness. This way, we will leverage the humanitarian and service-oriented nature of Lifesaving sport, to empower youth to become active citizens and role models, fostering civic responsibility while contributing to safer communities. The project methodology consists of key phases: needs assessment, capacity building of youth workers, local training camps for marginalized youth, implementation of the Water Safety Advocates Program, and dissemination to ensure sustainability. The development of the Lifesaving Hero Toolkit and Guide will be structured resources to integrate sport-based civic education into their programs.