Recent research from Sport England and the CCPR certainly seem to suggest that is the case.

Volunteers are at the heart of most sports clubs

Sport England recently reported on their quarterly results for their Active People Survey, which provides the largest  survey of sport and active recreation undertaken in Europe. While the headline results showed promise, with 6,822,000 people (16 and over) now playing sport three times a week and regular participation holding firm since December 2008, as well as satisfaction with local sports provision increasing, there were some worrying trends including a decrease in volunteering.

Could it be that volunteering, along with competitive participation and membership, has suffered from the current economic environment?

With less disposable income it seems that participation in sporting activities, whether as a competitor or volunteer, is one of the things that suffers. A recent Times article, based on research by the CCPR, suggested that the recession could mean the final whistle for 6,000 community sports clubs due to falling membership.

The CCPR research noted that “volunteering is also being affected by the economic downturn, with more than a fifth of clubs saying that the circumstances have had a negative or very negative impact on attracting and retaining volunteers “.

Within our sector, volunteers play a crucial role in delivering activities across sport and active leisure, with volunteer hours equivalent to over 50,000 full time roles. These roles  can range from the obvious ones such as coaches and officials to many more roles behind the scenes such as those who maintain equipment or look after the finances.  One of the key barriers to volunteering, particularly in the front-line roles, is often the cost of training. With both clubs and volunteers currently suffering from a lack of funds this obviously impacts upon maintaining both the number of volunteers and their skills.

SkillsActive often plays a part in directing funding into the sector, and support a number of bursaries and projects which help those in the sector in funding their development. Our London and South West coaching bursaries were a huge success and there are a number of bursaries to coaches still available in some regions. In the East of England  the East-Links: Leading the Field programme provides opportunities in fitness and officiating as well as targeting coaches. Meanwhile in playwork, there is funding available for playworkers to undertake level 3 qualifications, allowing advancement of skills for those in or looking to join the sector.

For more information on volunteering, whether in sport or other areas, Volunteering England have a whole host of information on their website with a large section dedicated to sport. 

If you’ve seen the impact of the recession on volunteering, share your views below.

If you’re a coach or leader working with young people, you’ll often find that there are two things standing in the way of your personal developement – time and money. The SkillsActive and Nancy Ovens Bursary could help with those by offering funding of up to £2000 for anyone working across the Active Leisure and Learning Sector to enhance their skills and knowledge in a way that traditional training courses cannot provide.

This can often be achieved by taking part in studies, work experience or activities outside of their day-to-day job, with previous applicants shadowing the best coaches in their chosen field or using the money to pay for cover in their day-to-day job so that they can volunteer elsewhere.

We’ve just produced a few new case studies of some of last year’s successful applicants, which you can download below:

• The first case study looked at aspiring basketball coach Ben Foster spent the summer in Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA, coaching at various summer camps with Doug Noll, a top former player and assistant coach, who runs a worldwide basketball academy.
  
• The second case study looked at hockey coach Duncan Parnis travelled to Australia over the summer; here he took part in two projects, a coaching project at a successful Australian Hockey club, and ‘The Refugee Sports Project’ which helps children from war torn countries such as Sudan, Somalia and Afghanistan who find refuge in Australia.
• Finally, the third case study looks at how Nigel West spent three weeks in California in a bid to learn from some of the country’s top coaches. Despite having 22 years coaching experience, Nigel is always looking to develop his skills and the bursary presented the best opportunity to continue his personal development through a unique learning experience.

As you can see from these, and the other bursary recipients from 2006 and 2007, this is a really unique opportunity to develop a truely individual learning experience – it is these well thought out and unique experiences that the judging panel look for.

In previous years the majority of our applicants, and all of the recipients, have come from the sporting sector. Coaches from a variety of sports have benefited by learning from the very best coaches in their sport, and to do so have travelled worldwide in search of personal development. This year we’re keen to attract applicants from some of our other sectors, in addition to top coaches, who could equally benefit from learning from the best in their field, whether it be in the outdoors, playwork, health and fitness or caravans.

As such, we’ve been running a series of articles on how applicants from each of these sectors might chose to develop their skills in Playwork, the Outdoors, Caravans, Sport and Recreation and Health and Fitness.

The closing date for applications for the SkillsActive and Nancy Ovens Bursary is 12 May, so applicantions need to be made quickly. Find out more at www.skillsactive.com/nancyovensbursary