World Youth Festival Volunteer Training Begins in St. Petersburg

On September 22, the World Youth Festival Volunteer Recruitment and Training Center was opened at St. Petersburg State University of Economics (UNECON). The event was attended by Igor Maksimtsev, Rector of UNECON, and Larisa Sulima, Deputy Director General for Regional Cooperation of the World Youth Festival Directorate. The event participants signed cooperation agreements.

The Volunteer Recruitment and Training Center will train 215 volunteers for the World Youth Festival, including 120 specialists from St. Petersburg. The University will also select and train volunteers from the Leningrad, Pskov and Novgorod Regions. Earlier, the first Volunteer Recruitment and Training Center of the Northwestern Federal District was opened at the Volunteer Resource Center of the Arkhangelsk Region.

"The Volunteer Center of our University is one of the 27 centers that will coordinate the World Youth Festival volunteer corps in the spring of 2024. A lot of organizational work, new experiences and important tasks lie ahead of us. I am confident that our team, as always, will be up to the task set by the state," said Igor Maksimtsev, Rector of UNECON.

The training of the WYF 2024 volunteer corps trainers, including those from St. Petersburg, has also started. From September 19 to 22, a training seminar for trainers of volunteer centers in the Northwestern Federal District was held as part of the District Volunteer Forum in the Murmansk Region. More than 20 people participated in the event. The trainers will train volunteers from all the Russian regions until the end of January 2024. A team of 160 trainers will provide training to the volunteers.

St. Petersburg is actively involved in the volunteer movement. There are more than 294,000 volunteers in the region. For ten years, the UNECON Volunteer Center has been actively attracting volunteers for major international events, including the XXII Olympic Winter Games and the XI Paralympic Winter Games in 2014, the 2018 FIFA World Cup, the 2020 UEFA European Football Championship, the 2022 UEFA Champions League Final and others.

Overview:

The World Youth Festival will take place in 2024, according to the decree of Russian President Vladimir Putin on the development of international youth cooperation. At the first meeting of the Organizing Committee chaired by Sergey Kiriyenko, First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Administration, it was decided to hold the Festival in the Sirius Federal Territory on March 1-7, 2024. The regional program of the World Youth Festival will take place on March 10-17, 2024. The participants will visit 30 cities of Russia.

20,000 young leaders in education, science, international cooperation, culture, volunteering, charity, sports, business, media, etc., including 10,000 foreign participants, will take part in the WYF 2024. For the first time in the history of the festival movement young people aged 14-17, 500 from Russia and 500 from abroad, will have the opportunity to participate in the event. Registration is open until December 1 at fest2024.com.

5,000 volunteers from all regions of Russia, including about 250 residents of the LPR, DPR, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson Regions will be involved in the organization and delivery of the Festival. Registration of volunteers is open on the ДОБРО.РФ platform until December 1, 2023.

The World Youth Festival is organized by the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs (Rosmolodezh) and operated by the World Youth Festival Directorate.

Prepared by the World Youth Festival Press Office