SportNav Volunteering in Sport - Sport Across Staffordshire

What sport
organisations
need to know
about volunteering
Why should your sport
organisation work with wider
volunteering organisations?
Do you want more volunteers?
Are you finding it difficult to
retain volunteers?
Could you make better use of
your volunteers?
If you said ‘yes’ to any these questions
there are volunteering organisations
whose job it is to help you.
How are volunteering
organisations organised?
Just as there is a large sport system in
England, there is also a wide network
of volunteering organisations to help all
sectors, including sport (see Figure 1).
This includes:
Local Volunteer Centres
What do they do?
They provide support at a local level for
individual volunteers and volunteer
involving organisations.
How can they help your sports club?
By:
• Operating as brokers - putting potential
volunteers in touch with volunteering
opportunities and training, and linking
volunteer-seeking organisations with
appropriate people.
• Promoting your volunteering needs
through encouraging local interest
via events and publicity.
• Delivering good practice training.
• Providing information for volunteers
and volunteer managers/coordinators.
• Developing volunteering roles and
opportunities within your sports club.
• Providing information on policy.
• Responding to local campaigns from
a volunteering perspective.
• Linking strategically to your
Community Sports Network and
County Sports Partnership.
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new sports
volunteers
Although many sport volunteers are
recruited directly into clubs, events or
sport governing bodies, Local Volunteer
Centres can extend the type and range
of people who volunteer in sport and
may well be able to identify someone
with special skills who would not usually
have found their way into sport. See
http://www.volunteering.org.uk/volunteer
developmentagencies/
8 Sport England