Jeff Spencer with Personal Best delivery partners in the East Midlands
So here we have a bunch of people holding random pieces of Olympic sports equipment I retrieved from my attic for the photo shoot – none of which have seen Olympic action but hey, we can all dream! Your first thought is probably, so what? What does that have to do with London 2012?
Well, those pictured are actually involved with steering the Personal Best project in the East Midlands which recently launched – a programme designed to harness the unique motivating force of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games (you can get all the details on Personal Best here). We are all committed to inspiring more than 300 out of work or socially disadvantaged people in the East Midlands to undertake a level 1 qualification, experience some volunteering and ultimately move into employment or further training. The project really excites me because of the positive impact it will have on individual’s lives, employment, and the sport sector pre 2012 and beyond.
In six months time, I hope to post a different picture with an even better story; a group of Personal Best graduates from the East Midlands who have all got their level 1 qualification and are going on to bigger and better challenges. They are welcome to borrow the sports equipment again for the photo shoot, unless I need it!
The London 2012 Inspire Programme recognises innovative projects that are inspired by the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and the Inspire Mark is awarded to projects that help inspire change – a key vision of the London 2012 Olympics.
The Personal Best programme uses the prospect of becoming a Games time volunteer in 2012 as the inspiration to attract unemployed and socially excluded people to complete a level 1 qualification, experience volunteering and move towards getting a job or onto further training.
More information about the programme can be found on our Personal Best pages.
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?
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.
Today the Guardian ran a piece, Fresh start to Olympic dreams, focussing on the opportunity for disadvantaged people to gain training and a chance to get involved in the 2012 games. As the Guardian points out, the scheme aims to tackle social exclusion, particularly by attempting to attract people from a black or minority ethnic background, those with a disability, lone parents, women returning to the workplace and individuals with health conditions.
This programme isn’t solely London focussed however, and SkillsActive are heavily involved in helping develop this programme, and its roll-out across the country.
The North East of England was the first region outside London to launch the programme back in March, with Jonathan Edwards CBE, Olympic triple jump gold medallist and world record holder, on hand to support the initiative as you can see below.
Jonathan Edwards launches Personal Best in the North East
More videos from Personal Best in the North East can be found on the LSC North East Youtube.
The South East of England also offers the programme, and other regions will soon follow. You will be able to keep updated on the development of Personal Best through our website section at www.skillsactive.com/personalbest
If you are looking to get involved with Personal Best, the best port of call for Londoners should be the Personal Best website while elsewhere you are advised to go through the local JobCentre Plus or by contacting one of the regional LSC leads, who are:
Posted to Careers at 11:57 am on August 7th, 2008 by Dougie
With the Beijing Olympics about to begin (in fact, the football has already kicked off!), you might wonder how such a huge event is organised and staffed. As you might have seen from our Beijing Bloggers, the bulk of the workforce staging the Olympics is actually made up of voluntary workers – Charlotte and David are just two of around 100,000 volunteers who will help make the Olympics happen over the coming month.
Did you know that over six million volunteers give a whopping one billion hours to sport every year! It is estimated that 70% of the 1.2 million coaches in the UK are volunteers. Volunteering is a great way to get in the industry, plus you get to learn valuable skills doing something you totally enjoy.
Here are my top 5 reasons to consider becoming a sport volunteer;
Help a cause that is close to your heart.
Most sport clubs simply couldn’t function without the help of volunteers, so they greatly appreciate any offer for help and support.
Volunteering is varied and has a wide range of jobs roles.
Sports volunteers are people with all kinds of skills that help sports clubs in their day-to-day operations. You could be helping the organisation by looking after finances, creating publicity, attracting sponsorship, setting up databases, writing newsletters, raising funds, coaching, running events… the list is endless!
Learn valuable skills.
Good news is many roles do not actually require any knowledge of sport. Many people find that voluntary work has been a great way to learn new skills and most of these skills are transferable to other roles and industries.
Opportunity to step into paid employment.
Many people have found that volunteering has got them a foot in the door of a organisation, and that has led to a paid role. Plus it certainly looks great on your CV or activepassport if you have worked as a volunteer.
More importantly volunteering is FUN!
It can be a great way to make friends and have fun, while making a real difference to people’s lives and helping your local community.
So if you want to get involved and become a sport volunteer here are a few useful websites to help you get started:
Timebank helps match the passions, interests and skills of individuals with volunteering opportunities:
www.timebank.org.uk
If anyone has any other suggestions for volunteering leave us a comment or share your story with us, maybe you’ll inspire others to join the next generation to follow Charlotte and David and gain the opportunity to be involved in some of the biggest sporting events in the world!
SkillsActive is the Sector Skills Council for Active Leisure and Learning. Directed by employers, SkillsActive leads the skills and productivity drive across sport and recreation, health and fitness, outdoors, playwork and caravan industries.
Here you can find out about some of the work and initiatives that we are undertaking across these sectors.
Find out more about SkillsActive, and our work, over here on our main site.
