At this critical time in our sector’s history, with great challenges and opportunities before us, we’ve published the EuropeActive Manifesto to unite stakeholders around four critically important areas of improvement for our common future.
Our goal is to rally everyone in the industry to sign the manifesto and mobilise an innovative movement, with the document as the common reference point. The aim being for our sector to successfully move out of the shadow of COVID-19 and reach its fullest potential towards 2025.
The first of the four areas of focus is health. Every year new scientific research underscores the potential and importance of fitness and exercise – the core product of our sector – as an effective solution to many of the most common public health challenges.
This doesn’t only relate to physical health and wellbeing, but also to social and mental aspects. Becoming recognised providers of physical, social and mental wellbeing in the eyes of consumers represents a huge opportunity for our sector and EuropeActive has made it a public affairs goal for policy-makers to recognise our sector as a deliverer of public health solutions.
Our second area of focus is digital and focuses on speeding up digitalisation, educating our sector in this area and strengthening these parts of our ecosystem in order to develop the best possible solutions for our digital infrastructure.
As everybody learned during the lockdown, digital and tech solutions enable all kinds of fitness businesses to operate beyond ‘bricks and mortar’ to reach all types of consumers everywhere.
Becoming valued providers of health and wellbeing in our communities requires us to express visible care for our communities, or what we call active citizenship. The third headline of our manifesto is, therefore, community.
We must promote trust and confidence in our sector, by demonstrating our willingness to take responsibility in society. We’re in a unique position to help strengthen our communities, by promoting the physical, social and mental health and wellbeing of citizens of all ages and backgrounds.
Finally, having professional standards is the hallmark of every mature sector, and it’s critical we unite around upskilling our workforce and demonstrating the expertise of our professionals through professional registers. This is also a prerequisite for our collaboration with health professionals and the medical community.
Every crisis is an opportunity for leadership. Emerging successfully out of a crisis as significant as this pandemic requires visionary leadership, creative thinking and innovative collaboration. The ambition of EuropeActive’s Manifesto is to promote leadership and collaboration to become the best possible version of ourselves in the coming years.
Sign the manifesto at
HCMmag.com/manifesto