The theme for this issue is the European Year of Education through Sport. We hope you will enjoy reflecting on the year and some of the activities that took place. As with all topics that are the subject of a “European Year” – or any other time-bound initiative – there is a risk that with the spotlight off the subject will be forgotten. My hope is that this will not be the case but that the benefits of education through sport will continue to be realised and developed in the European Youth field. The wide-ranging benefits are reflected in the variety of articles from football fan clubs to seminars on sailing ships.

Our series on spirituality in training continues with a wider-than-European view as Kanwal Preet Kaur from India brings us a personal account of integrating spirituality into Human Rights Training. The Coyote Spirit section; where we look at matters spiritual and philosophical, contains two further articles for reflection. First Georges Wagner tackles the sometimes-difficult issue of balancing closeness and distance between trainer and participant and second, we have the personal account of a trainer and participant who battled with some stereotypes and fell in love. What strikes me about these three articles is that while they may talk about spiritual or philosophical issues, they are also very down-to-earth.

January this year saw many trainers - along with colleagues from other sectors - attending “Bridges for Recognition”, the European conference on recognition of Non-Formal Education and Youth Work. For the trainers at least, one highlight was the discussion about recognition of trainers. We are grateful to Andreas Karsten for his brief introduction to the discussions that took place there and the potentially revolutionary proposals that were made.

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