In 1000 days on the London 2012 website

London 2012 have been celebrating the fact that there is now just 1000 days to go until the start of the 2012 Olympics. They’ve been asking on twitter and their website what people want to achieve in the next 1000 days.

For us, we’ve got a number of roles to play in staging the Olympics, and we’re involved in quite a few projects which have London 2012 as the catalyst.

The Advanced Apprenticeship in Sporting Excellence is one, developed to help athletes succeed at the highest level. Originally developed with the intention of seeing athletes succeed at London 2012, we were obviously delighted to see nine AASE athletes compete in the Beijing Olympics and Paralympics , including double gold medalist Rebecca Adlington.

While it is great to help athletes in their quest for success over the next 1000 days, we also want the sector as a whole to be a success in line with our vision: More People, Better Skilled, Better Qualified. Some of the other projects we’re involved with will certainly help us in meeting that challenge.

With the news that more than five million people are currently participating in London 2012 Games-related projects, initiatives such as Personal Best certainly help get more people better skilled and better qualified.

Personal Best is the national pre-employment training programme, which uses the prospect of being a volunteer at London 2012 to engage workless and socially excluded people with education and help them gain skills, lift their aspirations and open up new life and career opportunities.

Recruit into Coaching is another project we’re involved in which will provide more people, better skilled and better qualified. We aid Sport England in delivering the Recruit into Coaching programme, which aims to recruit, train and deploy 10,000 new volunteers by 2011, greatly increasing our volunteer coaching workforce and directly increasing the sporting activity in both school and community settings.

Sport England have recently produced the following case study looking at the impact of the programme on participants and how these coaches can then go on to help others through sport.

So what do you want to achieve in 1000 days? Let us know through comments below and let London 2012 know through their website or by using the twitter hashtag #in1000days.

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.