The opening meeting of the Erasmus+ Youth Program "Advan+AGE" project coordinated by the Turkish Volleyball Federation (TVF) was held in Ankara. TVF Vice President Alper Sedat Aslandaş, TVF project team, Ankara University officials, Italian Volleyball Federation, SGRIM and Anazitites Theatrou (Fix in Art) project partners attended the meeting.

Before starting the meeting, a minute of silence was held for the people who lost their lives in the earthquake disaster centered in Turkiye.

In the opening speech of the project meeting, TVF Vice President Alper Sedat Aslandaş said: "On behalf of the project coordinator and TVF, I would like to welcome you all. We are very happy to see our friends with whom we have done projects together before and our new partners together. I am sure that we will finalize the project successfully, good luck to all of us."
On the first day of the project opening meeting; project management and promotion, monthly planning, work packages, identification of disadvantaged groups were emphasized. After the meeting, the project partners took a photo with the "Erasmus+ KA-220 YOU Advan+AGE commemorative sycamore" planted in the garden of TVF Ankara Office.
On the second day of the event, experts made presentations on volleyball dictionary, training program and nutrition. During the meeting, the general outlines of the project were detailed and ideas were exchanged on the work packages of the project.
The two-day meeting program ended with the distribution of certificates to the participants.

Advan+AGE

The "Advan+AGE" project, which was submitted to the Directorate for EU Affairs-Turkiye National Agency within the scope of the Erasmus+ Youth Program 2022 call for proposals, was accepted in October 2022 as the only Erasmus+ Youth Program project to be carried out under the coordination of a sports Federation.

The project will be implemented by 5 partner organizations from 4 different countries:

Turkish Volleyball Federation (Coordinator-Turkiye)
Anazitites Theatrou (Fix in Art) NGO (Greece)
Ankara University (Turkiye)
Italian Volleyball Federation (Italy)
SGRIM NGO (Germany)
About Advan+AGE Project

The target groups of the 18-month project will consist of youth from various disadvantaged groups who have difficulty in adapting to society, such as youth who are exposed to violence, prone to crime, migrants/refugees, of different ethnic backgrounds, in need of protection, disabled, living in rural, underdeveloped or poor urban areas, growing up in the midst of political violence, and youth with very low socio-economic conditions, and their relatively advantaged peers.

The Advan+AGE project aims to promote the social integration of youth from the above-mentioned disadvantaged groups, who have limited opportunities and lack strong community ties, through volleyball. For this purpose, various cultural and educational activities are planned and it is aimed to create career pathways for young people in the target groups.

Other objectives of the project are to emphasize the importance of volleyball as a tool of inclusion to create equal opportunities among young people, to provide disadvantaged young people with an active and healthy lifestyle, to raise awareness of young people on their career paths and to help them gain the skills they can use on this path through volleyball.

Within the scope of the project, social cohesion among young people will be ensured through various environmental, educational and cultural activities, as well as volleyball activities that disadvantaged and relatively advantaged young people will perform together, and contribute to the elimination of barriers for "disadvantaged" young people among their peers.