This month we take a look at the difference that sports volunteers are making to their communities.
by David Agrawal and Louise Ivey
Volunteering magazine, September 2006, Issue 112
www.volunteering.org.uk/magazine
Research has shown that sports participation and volunteering can transform communities by reducing anti-social behaviour and increasing social cohesion. We are all familiar with the kind of physical and mental benefits that sport offers to individuals.
But sport - with the help of its volunteers - is also proving to be a powerful tool for building and re-building healthy, vibrant and socially cohesive communities.
Sport boosts social cohesion
Numerous studies, including those published in the International Journal of Sports Psychology, have shown that sport may be useful in reducing anti-social behaviour and increasing social cohesion.
It can work as a distraction, can be used as a “hook” to engage people in broader training programmes, and can also work as a form of behavioural therapy – teaching common purpose, respect for others, self esteem, teamwork, acceptance of authority and even the value of morals.
Six million volunteers in sport
These benefits require participation, but there is, of course, no participation without volunteers. Indeed Sport England research carried out in Yorkshire found a clear link between increased levels of volunteering and increased levels of participation. With nearly six million volunteers making sport happen in England (that’s 26% of all volunteers), sports volunteers are in a position to make a powerful contribution to the health and well being of their local communities.
But this contribution does not stem solely from the participation that volunteering enables. As the Russell Commission (2005) has highlighted, the process of volunteering in itself can also be beneficial to communities.
The Commission focussed on young people, a group whose volunteering activities are 47% sports-based. Recognising the benefits of structured volunteering, the report states: “Society as a whole will benefit as young people express themselves as active citizens. It benefits from the connections young people make when they volunteer – across classes, communities, neighbourhoods and generations. As a result society will be more cohesive.”
Volunteering 'helps the young progress'
Furthermore, the report notes that, through skills development and personal development, volunteering allows young people to progress further – not only in volunteering, but also in training and employment.
Add these benefits, from volunteering itself, to the benefits of the participation that sports volunteering enables, and we can see that sports volunteers can play a significant role in community development.
So how is sport equipping its volunteers with the skills, tools and techniques they need to do this?
Running Sport is a programme organised and run by Sport England in order to provide support and resources to sports volunteers. It works through a carefully developed package of resources and workshops on topics such as obtaining funding, ensuring that sports groups are accessible, and managing, recruiting, retaining and motivating volunteers.
Benefit to communities
The challenge, and one that Sport England continues to address, is that often in the communities that are most likely to benefit from volunteering, the volunteers are the most difficult to reach. A great deal of sport – particularly in the more disaffected or excluded communities – takes place in informal or community groups, whose volunteers often do not recognise themselves as volunteers at all, let alone benefit from support networks.
“The challenge is to respect the informality that many groups value while still providing useful support and resources,” explains Lisa Wainwright, Senior Development Manager for Volunteers at Sport England. “It’s not about forcing volunteers to attend training – it’s about sharing best practice and offering the support that is most relevant, in a form that volunteers want, through a channel they can easily access.”
The Running Sport support is delivered through a network of accredited and approved trainers - sports development professionals who understand the specific needs of volunteers working in sports groups.
Delivering the essentials in short but effective evening workshops across the country, or publishing quick hints in downloadable resource packs, Running Sport equips volunteers with the most effective tools and techniques to apply in their own clubs and groups.
Volunteers leave the workshops with expert practical advice, but, perhaps most importantly, they also leave having met volunteers in similar situations and who have encountered the same problems.
“We’d taken a long time to get to where we were,” says one Running Sport attendee. “If we’d gone on workshop right at the beginning then we would have saved a lot of time. You’ll learn things a lot quicker than by trial and error.”
Volunteers go away better equipped to run more effective sports groups. At the same time, although they may not realise it, they may also be working towards bringing about a more vital, healthier and happier local community, and a more cohesive and socially inclusive nation.
David Agrawal and Louise Ivey work at Coussins Associates, an organisation that works closely with Sport England to develop the Running Sport programme.
Useful web links:
http://www.coussins.co.uk
http://www.runningsports.org/
http://www.sportengland.org/
