WEB_SportEngland_AR_2016-17

Volunteering – a dual benefit
Without volunteers, grassroots sport would grind
to a halt. But that is not the only reason why we
want to encourage more people from a wider
range of backgrounds to get involved.
In its Sporting Future strategy, the Government
asked Sport England and the sport sector to look
at volunteering differently, through the eyes of
the volunteer. Volunteering may be fundamental
to sport, but what does or can it do to directly
benefit the person concerned? Sport England
is trying to determine how volunteering can best
contribute to all of the five outcomes that Sporting
Future is seeking to achieve.
In November 2016 we launched
Volunteering in an Active Nation, a new
strategy which explains how, over the next eight
years, we will increase the number of people
volunteering and change the demographics
of volunteering in sport to become more
representative of society as a whole. The first
stage of that strategy is to understand how a
positive, meaningful volunteering experience may
look and feel. With this aim, the strategy’s first
two funds both opened in February 2017.
The £3 million Opportunity Fund will invest in
projects that create volunteering opportunities
for people from lower socio-economic groups.
This is one of the most starkly under-represented
groups in sports volunteering, and yet we know
that individuals from this group have potentially
the most to gain. Acknowledging some new and
different approaches should be tested, we’ve
committed to giving at least half of these funds to
projects run by partners who are new to us – and
perhaps even to the sport sector.
Research by Step Up to Serve shows that 70%
of young people want to do more social action
in the next 12 months, but are not sure how,
or where. Also, according to the Youth Action
Survey of 2015, people who start volunteering
when they are young are more likely to continue
in later life. We want to unleash all this potential
by funding projects which connect to the lives
and aspirations of young people who haven’t
volunteered regularly before.
The Potentials Fund will reach 10-20 year
olds who are interested in improving their
local community, but haven’t yet made a firm
commitment. Our investment of £1.5 million
will be match-funded by #IWill – a partnership
between the Big Lottery Fund, DCMS and
Step Up to Serve.
By the 24 April 2017 deadline, the Opportunities
Fund had received 211 applications and the
Potentials Fund 214. Awards are due to be
announced in September 2017.
We’ve continued to support some of the
most committed volunteers in sport – club
administrators. Our online and live support
package Club Matters has held over 300
workshops and had over 23,000 toolkits
downloaded since its 2015 launch. The external
evaluation of the programme in March 2017
reported that it is “having precisely the type
of impact that a national public body should
be seeking to achieve with an investment
on the scale of Club Matters”. Our commitment
to the efficient running of sports clubs continues
in 2017-18.
23,000
DOWNLOADS
Our online and live support package
Club Matters has held over 300 workshops
and had over 23,000 toolkits downloaded
since its 2015 launch.
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