Stoke-on-Trent City Council are recognised for their outstanding work with Sport Leaders UK

 

Sport Leaders UK filmed various Sport Leaders from Stoke City Council as a result of successfully accrediting over 150 people in different Sports Leaders UK awards including Sports Leaders UK Level 2 award in community Sports Leadership, Level 1 award in Sports Leadership, Young Leaders Award, Level 1 award in dance leadership and Sports Leader tutor training. As a result we have facilitated volunteer opportunities and career pathways for the people of Stoke-on-Trent.

 

Sport Leaders UK is a National charity which aims to inspire people and communities into leadership through the medium of sport. Sports leadership is popular with over 130,000 new leaders accredited nationally every year, and nationwide Sports Leaders UK aim to train 1 million leaders over the next 5 years.  Stoke-on-Trent City Council’s Sport Development team have been working closely with Sport Leaders UK for the past 3 years and during this time have accredited 153 people with the nationally recognised awards, contributing to improving people’s motivation, confidence, communication, fitness, and leadership skills through sport and physical activity. 

 

Sport Development staff at Stoke-on-Trent City Council are proud to be an Approved Assessment Centre and a successful Community Delivery Partner, boasting real life examples of creating career opportunities for young and older people in the community.

Ben Gibson, began as a volunteer in sport, he progressed through Sport Leaders UK becoming accredited as a level 2 Community Sports Leader. Ben is now thoroughly enjoying his career in sport development as a Programme Champion for ‘Closing the Gap’ a major sports based inclusion programme. Similarly, Kate Beer also began as a volunteer sports leader and has now progressed further to gain employment as an Assistant Sport Development Officer.  A number of coaches ranging in age from 17-62 have found employment with the City Council due to their involvement with Sports Leaders UK including Mark Latham, Sarah Minshall, Matt Jackson, Chris Elkes, Les Bisson and Amy Smith. Amy also become a tutor in the level 1 award in Dance Leadership and has delivered a course to volunteers. 

Sports Leaders UK courses have been delivered to a variety of volunteers and organisations including both the Shelton and Riverside day centres for adults with learning difficulties, Nacro, Groundwork as well as officers from both the Bucknall and Tunstall Neighbourhood Policing Units.  The City Council's successful work with Sport Leaders UK was recently recognised when Stoke was selected as a venue to film various leaders in action to help create SLUK’s new national promotional DVD “Pass it on 2”. Among those sports leaders selected to be filmed was our oldest level 2 Sports Leader Les Bisson, who has now been involved with sports projects within his local community for over a year including setting up his own weekly sport session for children, this experience has now led Les to paid employment as a coach for the City Council.  Also featuring in the DVD is the David Hardwick who is part of the City Councils Sports Development team.  David has worked closely with Sport Leaders UK to date has successfully delivered nearly 20 courses accrediting over 100 people.

A group of sports leaders from the city also recently attended Sports Leaders UK’s first ever national leadership convention and took part in a range of exciting activities and challenges from practical leadership tests to media training, Sarah Minshall received specific recognition for her skills as a sports leader scooping the days top prize an all expenses scholarship to coach for three months in the USA. Sports Development are continuing to increase the number of Sport Leaders in Stoke-on-Trent and has even trained more than 50 people to become course leaders with the aim of influencing more and more people to become involved in sports leadership training and make a real difference in the community. For more information on becoming a volunteer sports leader in Stoke-on-Trent please contact David Hardwick on 01782 235001.

 

Andrew Heaward
Sports Development Manager
Tel: 01782 238866
Email: andrew.heaward@stoke.gov.uk