What is Step into Sport?
Step into Sport is part of the Government’s National School Sport strategy. The programme is coordinated by a combination of Sport England, Youth Sport Trust and Sports Leaders UK
Step into Sport is focused towards individuals’ aged 14-19, and seeks to provide opportunities for these individuals to gain experience in volunteering and leadership in various aspects of sport. Many of these experiences take place in a participation environment, for example, an athletics club or summer holiday programme.
As with all aspects of volunteering and community involvement, the Step into Sport programme provides participants with the opportunity to develop a number of key skills, which can be transferred to other walks of life.
This group of volunteers can bring a wide variety of skills and experiences to your club, and may be able to facilitate a number of exciting new developments, for example, web site design.
How can your club benefit from Step into Sport?
- Enables your club members to develop experience in volunteer coordination.
- Existing club members can learn and develop new skills.
- A volunteering culture develops within the club, which can have many long-term benefits.
- Quality of services to members can be enhanced.
- Objectives can be achieved for little or no cost to the club.
- Step into Sport volunteers can become involved in additional roles, which can contribute to the long-term expansion and development of the club.
This is not an exhaustive list, but an indication of how some clubs have benefited so far. Perhaps your club can take even more from the Step into Sport programme.
Each volunteer has been identified by their school to take part in the Step into Sport programme.
When they reach the club they will have already been trained. All of the volunteers will have undertaken and achieved their Sports Leaders UK Level 1 Award in Sports Leadership, and for those aged 16 and above, they may also have completed their Sports Leaders UK Level 1 Award in Community Sports Leadership and for some, a specific UK Athletics qualification.
Many will also have received training around generic topics such as Child Protection, First Aid and Working with Children.
If you think your club would like to get involved with hosting placements, developing volunteering, and reaping the benefits, please contact your County Sport Partnership for further details. Alternatively, further information about offering placements as part of Step into Sport can be found by downloading the PDF document below.
Adapted from: Sport England, Creating High Quality Placements for Young Volunteers, September 2006, London, Sport England.