Sporting Champions supporting the Sainsbury’s School Games 2014 Focus: Raising aspirations of Young People What is the offer? Each Local Organising Committee has an entitlement of 2 Sporting Champions visits to ‘raise aspirations and motivations of young people’ through the School Games initiative. We are encouraging LOCs to liaise with their local partners and young people to consider the best way to maximise the visits before submitting an application. While we acknowledge the PR publicity value of a Sporting Champion visit this should be seen as an added value and the focus given to having real impact on young people by raising their aspirations.
What does best practice look like? Before the visits Relevant partners liaise to decide how the athlete can be deployed to raise aspirations of young people Establish clear roles and responsibilities to communicate with the athlete Plan to maximise the opportunities for young people to interact with the athlete e.g. Q & A, young reporter interviews, sharing the athlete’s ‘story’ Plan to use social media – possibly a School Games campaign including local media partners Identify ways of collecting young peoples’ views on the impact of the athlete During the visits Athlete’s involvement is fully agreed and planned A young person or adult is available to guide the athlete throughout the visit Maximise the interaction between young people and the athlete Great sense of purpose and atmosphere created Collect young peoples’ views on the impact of the athlete After the visits Strong use of media outlets to celebrate success and attract more schools to join the School Games Feedback young peoples’ views to the evaluation team Work with the Sporting Champions team to create a case study Linking the visits Two Sporting Champions visits must be effectively deployed across Levels 1, 2 and/or 3 to raise aspirations and motivations of young people.
Be creative with your two visits to maximise the focus on raising aspirations of the young people in your communities! Who are the Sporting Champions and what can they do? They are: Olympians, Paralympians and elite athletes who have competed on the ‘world stage’ trained to work with young people in a variety of settings advocates of the positive values of competition, fair play, respect and healthy lifestyles They can: reinforce the need to positively handle winning and losing and the importance of teamwork provide LOC’s with a means to create a ‘shift change’ towards healthy competitive sport provide a focal point for delivering positive messages View -Wiltshire and Swindons’ YouTube video featuring Sporting Champion Kate Grey, Paralympics GB swimmer. Examples of athlete deployment Summer/Winter Games (Level 3) Disability Games/ Inclusive Games Young Leaders/ volunteers conference School roadshows reaching multiple schools across Levels 1-3 (possibly in partnership with the County Council/Local Authority) A filming session with young people (Levels 1,2 and 3 ) to produce a set of generic School Games messages to be used by all schools across the LOC Sport specific events for Levels 1 and 2 (possibly in partnership with NGB) Other, your own ideas! What will success look like? The Sporting Champion will make a really positive impression on the young people when they meet them. The messages they deliver will be simple to understand, memorable and motivational. The young people will acknowledge that the Sporting Champion has raised their aspirations ‘to be the best they can be’. Hosts will report increased participation levels. How will we measure success? We will ask you to provide us with feedback including the views of some of your young people. View the feedback questions here.
Submit your application here Deadline: 31st January 2014 Sporting Champions Helpline – 01245 328303