Leading the way in volunteering opportunities

Wednesday, 14 July

This year’s dedicated team of Young Official and Young Event Volunteer Development Officers are coming together to recognise and celebrate the impact they have had over the past 12 months.

Developing opportunities for young people across the country to become young leaders, officials and event volunteers within sport, the team of 21 young people have had a busy but rewarding year.

The celebration event took place at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham on Wednesday 14th July, coinciding with the IWBF Wheelchair Basketball World Championships, where event volunteers, trained as a result of their work are also helping out.

The Development Officers, themselves volunteers, have been working with sporting governing bodies and host cities, such as Birmingham, to give young people interested in getting involved in sport, outside of competing, the opportunity to gain recognised qualifications and experience.

Over the last year they have helped develop a qualified and experienced army of over 4,000 young volunteers/referees/umpires/officials ready to support sporting opportunities for other young people across the UK.

These young people will provide a much needed injection into the lifeblood of British sport ensuring that opportunities to participate continue to grow

Thanks to their work:

• The Young Officials programme, sponsored by United Utilities, has helped over 3,600 young people gained official qualifications across 16 different sports such as athletics, cricket, netball, table tennis and wheelchair basketball, able to take up umpiring, refereeing and officiating roles at community and school competitions

• The Event Volunteers programme, supported by HSBC Education Trust, has seen 600 young people across the host cities (Bath/Bristol, Birmingham, London, Manchester Sheffield and Tyne and Wear) trained and deployed at events such as the AVIVA Indoor Grand Prix Athletics meeting, the National Badminton Championships and Sport Relief miles across the country

To find out more about the Young Officials programme, click here

To find out more about the Event Volunteering programme, click here