Efforts growing to broaden diversity of sports volunteers in London

London Sport linked up with London Sport Award winners Disability Sports Coach (DSC) yesterday (20 May) evening as part of wider shared efforts to broaden the diversity of sports volunteers in the capital.

DSC saw 19 of their volunteers and coaches complete an ‘Organising and Managing Events’ workshop run by StreetGames at House of Sport.

The group learned how to plan, organise and manage sports events understanding tasks needed before, during or after events and will be putting their skills into practice this summer.

Each volunteer will get the opportunity to test out their latest skills at the ParaGames Athletics competition of the London Youth Games on 19 June.

As part of its workforce strategic plan, Building a Better Workforce for the Future, London Sport are committed to supporting efforts that broaden the capital’s current sporting workforce.

In bringing together DSC’s expertise in disability sport with StreetGames’ knowledge of event delivery, this project marks an important step in supporting deaf and disabled people to play a prominent role across all aspects of physical activity and sport.

DSC, whose agenda-setting work was recognised at the London Sport Awards in March where they received the Workforce Award, create sport and physical activity opportunities that have a positive impact on disabled people’s lives.

The collaboration between the two groups represents an exciting step forward in efforts to make the sporting workforce more representative of London as a whole, and is heavily influenced by London Sport’s strategic plans for workforce and for disability, Building a Workforce for the Future and An Active Inclusive Capital.

Megan Bevis, Senior Project Officer at London Sport said:

“It was great to be able to support Disability Sports Coach to offer 19 hard-working volunteers the chance to develop new skills at StreetGames’ Organising and Managing Events workshop last night at House of Sport.

“A broader, more diverse and inclusive workforce is absolutely pivotal to meeting the physical activity needs of all Londoners and enabling them to lead active lives.

“Having disabled volunteers is a major part of this aim and it’s going to be great seeing them put their skills into practice at the London Youth Games this summer.”

Louis Wickett-Padgham, Disability Sports Coach's Business Development Manager said:

“It is incredibly important to build on the recent successes that our representative workforce have earned.

“We've have a fantastic bunch of volunteers that are incredibly motivated, so providing more training and more practical experience is essential and working in partnership with London Sport, London Youth Games and Street Games allows us to do so."