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 Scholarships

Northamptonshire Sport Volunteer Scholarship Scheme hasprovided funding towards training for volunteers in clubs that will support them in their role. Unfortunately the volunteer scholarship scheme has come to an end but if you are a coach that is looking to complete a coaching qualification , coach scholarships are available.

Quality Assurance and Resources

There are a few basic things that every volunteer needs to have a positive experience and so Northamptonshire Sport has developed Quality Standards for clubs and organisations. In order to promote opportunities all organisations must meet the standards. Clubs do not have to have ClubMark status but if they do then the majority of the standards will have already been met. To see the full details look at the  Guide to Sporting Volunteers.

To download a range of resources including templates and advice go to the Club Development Toolkit