Across Lancashire volunteers are providing an essential service to clubs and organisations to make sure that people are doing their best and getting the most out of sport. Volunteers can get involved with a huge range of roles such as coaching/leadership, officiating, administration, organising events, publicity, and many more.
The sporting sector makes the single biggest contribution to total volunteering in England with 26% of all volunteers citing 'sport' as their main area of interest. As well as benefiting the organisations and communities they volunteer in, volunteers often get the following personal benefits:
- Develop your skills e.g. communication, leadership, and organisation
- Build your confidence levels
- Make new friends and develop a new social circle
- Develop your C.V.
- Get better access to job opportunities
- Have fun and get a huge sense of achievement
- Improve your health
How to get involved
If you would like to become a volunteer or are keen to get volunteers to assist with your club or organisation there are a number of options available to you:
Lancashire Young Volunteers Programme
The Lancashire Young Volunteers in Sport Programme is aimed at 16-25 year olds interested in volunteering in sport / physical activity. The programme has been part of a North West Young Volunteering Programme coordinated and financially supported by Sports Volunteering North West. However, due to the termination of the Millennium Volunteers programme, financial support of this programme will only continue until September 2008. During this period, Lancashire Sport partnership are currently under consultation with a number of other organisations to ensure continuity of a similar programme. The details of the current programme can be found on the link below:
Step into Sport Scheme
Step Into Sport is a support programme designed to introduce young people to volunteering in sport. The programme is being run by Sport England, Sports Leaders UK and the Youth Sport Trust, and Lancashire Sport Partnership is responsible for the programme on a local level.
Step Into Sport aims to identify pathways for young people to be trained and supported when taking part in leadership and volunteering activity.
The programme is for 14-19 year olds with the aim of engaging them in volunteering and leadership activities throughout their lives.
Over the past year, the Youth Sport Trust have been working with feedback from partnership development managers, community volunteers and county sport partnerships to create a more manageable system to log community volunteering hours and support young people. Community volunteers are now able to log and manage their hours on-line with the Youth Sport Trust via this link.
Positive Futures
This Lancashire based programme is funded by the Home Office to support young people aged between 14-19 years old living in a deprived area within East Lancashire (Blackburn, Burnley, Rossendale, Pendle, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley). This funding is used to upskill and develop the young person, after a one to one consultation, to find out their career aspirations. Depending on their needs, the young person is then signposting to further training and ultimately volunteering opportunities. Lancashire Sport partnership are recruiting young people from now until March 2009, so if you would like more information about this programme contact Beth Wadsworth on 01995 642280.
Other sport volunteering opportunities
If you are over the age of 25 years and looking to volunteer in sport there are a number of options available to you.
- Mentor a young volunteer involved in the young volunteer scheme.
- Contact a local sports club to ask if they need help. You can find a list of clubs in Lancashire in our clubs section.
- Visit www.do-it.org.uk for further opportunities from a range of providers.
- Visit the Volunteering England website which has information on a number of sports-related volunteering opportunities.
- Visit the Sports Volunteering North West website for information to volunteer at events across the region, including opportunities in the build up to the 2012 Olympics.
- Within Lancashire we're sure to have something that suits you! If you have any queries, please feel free to contact our Volunteer Development Officer, Beth Wadsworth on 01995 642280.