The following is an excerpt on UEFA’s Euro 2024 Volunteer Tandem Programme that is inspired and based off of the Special Olympics World Games Berlin 2023 Host Town Program.
Diversity and inclusion is one of four areas of action in the social pillar of UEFA’s EURO 2024 Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) strategy, ensuring that the tournament is open to all and that every social group can be a part of the festivities.
This includes providing access and integration to people with disabilities, and Cologne is putting a particular focus on this through the Volunteer Tandem programme.
Ellena, UEFA EURO 2024 volunteer and Tandem partner:
"The extra effort to enable the participation of people with intellectual disabilities from the Volunteer Team in Cologne is very fascinating. I am very happy to support the inclusive Volunteer Programme by being a Tandem partner."
Inspiration for the initiative came during the Special Olympics World Games Berlin 2023, the largest inclusive sporting event in the world. The Host Town Program during that event, which welcomed the athletes to 200 locations across Germany, was the largest communal inclusion project in Germany’s history, and motivated EURO 2024 organisers in Cologne to follow this example of inclusivity.
