A group of students from the University of Central Lancashire’s (UCLan) Centre for Volunteering and Community Leadership and UCLanSport have been to Russia to lend their support to the 2014 Winter Olympics.

The students were joined by representatives from the 2012 London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, 2014 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, alongside more than 300 young people at the Youth Leadership Conference held in the city of Sochi, the Black Sea resort that will host the games in 2014.

Dr Alethea Melling MBE, Head of UCLan’s Centre for Volunteering and Community Leadership, has been working with the 2014 Winter Olympics committee to provide advice on the development of Centre’s for Volunteering and Community Action within Russian Higher Education Institutions.

“The aim of this piece of work is to join forces with the 2014 Winter Olympics organising committee to develop and engage a culture for community volunteering”

She said: “Since 2002, UCLan has developed strong working relationships with the Russian youth and volunteering organisation, the Association of Young Leaders, which has resulted in sharing best practice on a global scale.”

“The aim of this piece of work is to join forces with the 2014 Winter Olympics organising committee to develop and engage a culture for community volunteering within the Russian Higher Education Institutions demonstrating that student and community volunteering will be integral to the success of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.”

Sochi 2014

UCLan’s students delivered a peer-led workshop focussing on the common values of peer education and youth participation alongside a series of presentations demonstrating their experience of community-led projects developed at UCLan.