ADVICE ON HOW TO GAIN A VISIT

Role models making a difference

Welcome to the world of world-class visits to local communities.

Visits are allocated to local and national partners to ensure maximum impact of the Champion and to support key target areas of the scheme in line with Sport England's key objectives.

Please see below to find out how you may be able to access one of these visits. Current visits must be used before 30 September 2008.

To contact Sporting Champions email Susan Lee on sportingchampions@creatingexcellence.co.uk or call on 0800 328 4903.




Tracey Neville


Sarah Bailey


Courtney Fry

Criteria for a Sporting Champions Visit

The most important guideline for a Sporting Champions visit is that they must have a target audience of young people (up to 25 years old)...

In addition to this, the visit must:
1. be linked to on-going plans to increase participation amongst young people in community sport.
2. encourage/trigger long-term sports development opportunities
3. provide meaningful interaction between the young people and the Champion e.g. coaching sessions, presentations, Q&A sessions, etc

In order to support this, each visit should be linked to at least one of the following key themes:

- Increase participation in community sport
- Club and school links
- Leadership and volunteering

For school visits, being mindful of the post school gap, we ask that visits enhance pathways into local clubs and facilities to encourage lifelong participation and suggest that Champions work with Key Stage 4 pupils.

     

Coaches, Volunteers and Sport Development

Visits for are being driven through the County Sport Partnership (CSP) network (for more information about CSPs, please see below)

Sporting Champions ask the CSPs to nominate partners or activities in their county that would benefit from a visit. There are 200 visits available through the CSPs on a first-come-first-served basis. Each visit may take place any time between April and September 2008.

If you would like to access a visit through your County Sport Partnership please click below to find the relevant contact.

Please note that we do not support awards evenings. Feedback from recent evaluation of the Sporting Champions scheme has shown that the visits with the most impact for the young people are those that include real interaction between the Champion and the young people e.g. Q&A sessions, sporting demonstrations and coaching sessions. In our experience, a majority of awards ceremonies do not have provision for this kind of interaction.

     

Teachers and Education

Visits for schools must also be nominated by the relevant County Sport Partnership, to find the relevant contact, please see below.

Being mindful of the post school gap, we ask that visits enhance pathways into local clubs and facilities to encourage lifelong participation and suggest that Champions work with Key Stage 4 pupils.

Please note that we do not support awards evenings. Feedback from recent evaluation of the Sporting Champions scheme has shown that the visits with the most impact for the young people are those that include real interaction between the Champion and the young people e.g. Q&A sessions, sporting demonstrations and coaching sessions. In our experience, a majority of awards ceremonies do not have provision for this kind of interaction.

     

Sporting Champions.