Recruiting and Managing Volunteers
Across the country sport relies on nearly 6 million volunteers to make it happen and it's not just the coaches and leaders that are important. Clubs and other organisations that enable people to play sport, depend on people of all ages to give their time, enthusiasm and experience to carry out a range of important roles. The vast majority of clubs feel they need more volunteers but don’t always know how to reach them.
The Sporting Volunteers Programme aims to support clubs and other organisations in three ways:
- Promotion of opportunities and recruitment of volunteers
- Volunteer Coordinator/Mentor training
- Quality Assurance and Resources
View a full guide to Sporting Volunteers or Register your club or organisation now with Sporting Volunteers
Promotion of opportunities and recruitment of volunteers
Most volunteers come from members of the club or the people they know such as parents, partners or friends. However volunteers can come from a range of other sources bringing benefits to the club not just in their time but also their different backgrounds and experiences. They may also open up new areas for recruitment to the membership of your club.
The Sporting Volunteers Programme recruits volunteers from a wide variety of places including schools, University students and businesses.
Volunteer Coordinator/Mentor Training
Any club or organisation with more than a couple of volunteers will benefit from having a central point of contact for volunteers. Northamptonshire Sport offers two workshops and registration with sporting volunteers enables each club to receive a free place on each workshop.
The Sporting Volunteers Workshop gives a guide to the role of a volunteer coordinator as well as providing valuable advice on recruiting volunteers external to the club and how to receive qualified sports leaders from schools.
The Guide to Mentoring workshop is provided by Sports Coach
There are a few basic things that every volunteer needs to have a positive experience and so Northamptonshire Sport has developed Minimum Operating Standards for clubs and organisations. In order to promote opportunities all organisations must meet the standards. Clubs do not have to have Club Mark status but if they do then the majority of the standards will have already been met. To see the full minimum standards look at the relevant guide. To dowload a range of resources including templates and advice go to the Club ToolkitQuality Assurance and Resources