Club Development

Local Sports clubs are the most important pathway / structure which encourages children to stay in sport. Sports Development recognises this and therefore wants to offer as much support as possible to local clubs and volunteers.

Examples of support from Shrewsbury Leisure Sports Development

Example 1:

• 2 parents want to set up a basketball club as their sons are interested in playing.
• Parents manage to start some sessions in a local sports hall.
• The club needs some equipment so it applies to SADSAC for some funds (good thinking by the parents!).
• The club gets refused funding, they are frustrated and angry at this because all they want to do is offer new activities for children.

Why were they refused? Outrageous you might say?

• But... For any club to apply for grant aid they must have a constitution and bank account with 2 signatories.
• Unfortunately the club did not realise this so they asked for assistance from the sports development manager.

SDM to the rescue...

• The Sports Development Manager offers guidance and support to the club. A template constitution is ammended to suit the basketball club, a bank account set up, and a committee put in place. Details of equipment etc is all costed up and they're ready to go.

SADSAC application now successful... Nice one!!

• The club goes from strength to strength, but more players means more facility hire, more equipment, more money!!
  The club began to get overrun, and began to lose funds. The committee and the coaches become dispondent.
  They feel there's no support, no money!!

Sports Development appears again, slightly disheartened as to why the club hadn't asked for help before, after all, they had helped initially. But not to worry, there's always light at the end of the tunnel!

• Awards for all are saviour this time. The Sports Development Manager produced a grant application with the club that covered costs of facility hire, kit, equipment and coach education.

Fantastic! The application was successful and the club lives to fight another day!!

Example 2

• A new netball club is set up. Their committee, constitution and bank account are already in place. The club has already found out about awards for all and has some ideas as to what they want to do. The chairwoman contacts the sports development manager just to talk through application.
  The Sports Development Manager is inspired by this new volunteer, (if only there were more volunteers like this!) the ideas and commitment were fantastic. All the SDM did was suggest some additions like facility hire and coach education and then act as a referee.

The club is thriving and a great role model for other clubs. The club has now achieved the bronze caps award, which is the 1st level of the All England Netball Association club accreditation award.

Sports development works very closely with County Sports Partnership. The partnership employs a club/coach development officer. This officer promotes the following areas;

• Clubmark
  Sport England has developed a nationally recognised set of standards for clubs working with young performers to ensure that they provide a safe, effective and child friendly experience. These standards are integrated into a number of National Governing Body Club accreditation schemes. Clubmark is the kitemark of quality.
  
• Volunteer Recruitment
  Recruitment and retention of volunteers is a continually burning issue for the majority of sports clubs. The Shropshire Sports partnership has developed the "You can make the difference" Volunteer Recruitment workshops, which will hopefully try and solve this problem.
  
• Running Sport Workshops
  Sport England aims to "develop a better prepared and more effective workforce for sport in England." To meet this aim, Sport England have developed a series of running sport workshops that will help develop your skills so you can be the best you can be at running your club.