TOP Link is designed to enhance links between schools and encourage 14 to 16 year olds to organise and manage, sport or dance festivals in local primary and special schools. The conferences are designed to develop these skills and encourage young people to become leaders who can use their skills to benefit the wider community.
What makes the TOP Link conferences even more special is that Higher Education Students, supported by some of the country’s best-known sports stars, will deliver the programme to reinforce the power of using young people to lead and inspire their peers.
Each venue will host workshops on encouraging the young people to participate in sport, share ideas about the organisation and management of the festivals and develop their own leadership skills.
Young Leaders are also challenged to find a volunteering placement within their school and to achieve their first 50 hours of volunteering (Bronze Step into Sport Award).
The programme is part of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s Step into Sport programme and is connected to existing school leadership work such as the Level 1 in Sports Leadership (formerly JSLA) and CSLA to: Level 2 in Community Sport Leader Awards (formerly CSLA)
32 Conferences took part across the country in 2008. 2009 dates and venues to be announced.