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The partners from the DONA project met  September 26 and 27 in Amsterdam for training meeting. The project targets female volleyball athletes between 12-20 years old, covering the several important development stages including major changes on academic, athletic, psychological, social and professional levels. EAS was represented by Prof. Mojca Doupona-Topic.

At the meeting partners elaborated Pilot Programme which was very good prepaired by De SportMaatschappij Foundation. Later this year, 250 athletes will be directly involved in the pilot program, through the 4 participating sports clubs.

Partners also talked about the selection of the ambassadors. Each club selected two such persons.  Ambassadors are persons who are, or have been, active within the club and have experience with a dual career or with facing difficult transitions. They are good with younger athletes and like to help them with possible struggles.

INFORMATION about DONA

DONA is based on the ERASMUS+ Collaborative Partnership program of EU. It is coordinated by the Associació Esportiva Carles Vallbona (Spain) and involves the Malta Volleyball Association (Malta), the Scuola di Pallavolo Anderlini Soc. Coop. Sociale SD (Italy), the Associação Aventura com Carisma – Leixoes Sport Club (Portugal), Istres Provence Volleyball (France), the De SportMaatschappij Foundation (Netherlands), the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia), and the European Athlete as Student (EAS) Dual Career Network (Malta).

DONA aims to:

• decrease female athletes’ dropout from sport clubs;
• prepare athletes from an early age for the different transition periods ahead with developing the needed skills and competences;
• increase the number of professional and elite female volleyball players by retaining talents at clubs and supporting their DC development;
• make young athletes and their families aware that it is possible to aim for both educational and sports career;
• help them finding the right balance between sports and education with providing them the needed support services;
• prepare these athletes for their upcoming challenge to be successful in the change from elite sport to labour market – for the “career after the career”.