Hello to all you sporty people.
This page is dedicated to letting you know how much support is out there for people who play sport in England - all from people who give their time for free!
These people are volunteers. There are millions of volunteers in sport in England, ranging from the people who help run your local club or organisation to international level volunteers in some sports.
Even the biggest sport event on earth, the Olympic and Paralympic Games relies on volunteers to make it a success!
Volunteering England might never come into contact with you as a player, but we want to let you know how we support you without you even knowing it!
We support the organisations you volunteer with, and the organisations who you are familiar with such as your governing body, local authority and county sports partnerships.
So, let's start with you, the player, participant, rider, competitor. The sportsperson!
- You play sport in a local club or organisation.
- You get coached by a volunteer.
- Your matches / races / events are organised by a volunteer.
- You might have your kit washed, your clubhouse cleaned, your pitch maintained, your drinks poured, your post-match food cooked, your race officialled, your score noted down, your membership renewed, your end of season party organised, your organisation finances and overall running - all done by volunteers.
- You might even volunteer yourself, when you aren't actually doing the sport that is!
So what does Volunteering England do for all these volunteers in sport?
Well, at a local level...
The volunteers who support your sport can find information, training, support and a lot more help besides at their local Volunteer Centre. There are around 300 in England. If the volunteers or helpers in your sport organisation want help - point them in the direction of a Volunteer Centre! Most of our website is dedicated to organisations. If you want further information about how you can volunteer in sport, visit our sport volunteering pages.
At a national level...
Volunteering England supports all Volunteer Centres to help them to work with sport. This is pretty new work for both sport and Volunteer Centres as about 5 years ago there weren't many links between sport and Volunteer Centres. Do keep encouraging your organisation to try out working with your Volunteer Centre - we're all starting to work together in new and exciting ways so that sport is supported by happy volunteers!
Nationally too, we work with governing bodies to make sure they have all the right advice for their volunteers on the ground, and throughout their structures. We also work with Sport England and other national sport organisations.
We work to support the county and local authority structures through your local County Sports Partnership (CSP). Many of our members are CSPs and we have close links with Sport England in each region.
The information for all of these partners is on the sport webpages: have a look and they'll give you an idea of how we support them all, to ultimately support you.
Sport Matters...
So, we hope you've found out a bit more about the support that goes into making your sport happen. All because at the end of the day, sport matters. It matters to you and it matters to us. We're here for you, even though you might never have heard about us!
