Volunteering England has received funding from Sport England to give targeted support to 9 volunteer centres who will act as Sporting Champions within their regions. This is to help them develop their “offer” to sport locally so as to increase the number of opportunities to volunteer in sport, and to increase the diversity of those individuals doing so. They are:
- North East – Prudhoe Volunteer Centre
- North West – Tameside Volunteer Centre
- Yorkshire & Humber – Northallerton Volunteer Centre
- East Midlands – Volunteer Centres Derbyshire
- West Midlands – Dudley Volunteer Centre
- South East – Milton Keynes Volunteer Centre
- South West – Volunteering Gloucestershire
Each of these volunteer centres are part of a network of over 270 Quality Accredited Volunteer Centres, who are local organisations providing support and expertise within the local community, to potential volunteers, existing volunteers and organisations that involve volunteers. The Sporting Champions will be using their expertise to strengthen the sports clubs in their areas and help them to attract, retain and develop volunteers.
Peter Turner, Centre Manager at Milton Keynes Volunteer Centre said about his involvement in the project:
“Becoming a Regional Sporting Champion is a great opportunity for the Volunteer Centre in Milton Keynes to develop our work with the many local sports clubs. It will enable us to spread the word about best practice in volunteer management and enable us to ‘sportify’ our service.”
To find out more about the Sporting Champion Volunteer Centres contact Steve Ince, Sports Volunteer Development Manager at Volunteering England on stephen.ince@volunteeringengland.org or 020 7520 8921