Sochi 2014 Volunteer Centres Pledge Mass Recruitment of Volunteers

"The volunteer movement is one of the most important elements of the Sochi Games legacy."

The “Development of the Volunteer Movement” roundtable took place today in the framework of the 6th IOC Coordination Commission’s visit to Sochi. Heads of the educational institutions housing the twenty-six Sochi 2014 volunteer centres across Russia pledged their readiness to start the mass recruitment of volunteers for the Sochi 2014 Games, in February 2012. Amongst the participants were Dmitry Kozak, Deputy Prime-Minister of the Russian Federation, Jean-Claude Killy, Chairman of the IOC Coordination Commission for Sochi 2014 and Dmitry Chernyshenko, President of the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee.

The support of the volunteer activity at federal and regional levels, and the program for engaging, selecting and training volunteers, as well as the goals and objectives for the educational institutions as they implement the Sochi 2014 volunteer program, were all discussed in the course of the roundtable session. Alongside this, there was also a brief presentation of the system for preparing the volunteers, Q&A sessions for the heads of the volunteer centres, and a video-conference involving the volunteers from St. Petersburg and Vladivostok where they told about their most significant achievements within their volunteer centres.

The Volunteer centres began working on various projects in mid-2011 whilst today Sochi 2014 volunteer teams unifies more than 500 people of various nationalities across Russia. During the “1000 Days to the Sochi Games” celebrations, thousands of volunteers across the country became the main participants in a number of events, including “The Thousand Good Deeds Marathon”. The Sochi 2014 volunteers also played a central role in coordinating and supporting all the events and activities across the country dedicated to “1000 Days to the Paralympics”.

Dmitry Chernyshenko, President of the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee, remarked:

“The volunteer movement is one of the most important elements of the Sochi Games legacy. Thanks to the activity of the twenty-six Sochi 2014 volunteer centres, tens of thousands of people all over the country – from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok – are engaged in volunteer work. We have breathed life into the development of volunteer movement in Russia and I am sure that as the Games approach, we’ll have millions of people engaged”.