Recruit into Coaching Evaluation Newsletter Issue 1

Evaluation Newsletter Issue 1 Winter 2009

Welcome to the first RiC evaluation Newsletter!

© Alan Edwards

Launched at the RiC National Conference in London in September, the evaluation of the RiC programme has been carrying on in earnest over the past six weeks.

The aims and objectives of the evaluation are as follows: •

To create a culture of sharing good practice and promoting continuous improvement among providers, partners and investors of RiC.

•

To positively engage stakeholders of RiC to inform the future direction of the programme and any future programmes developed.

•

To measure the impact of the RiC programme finding out what works, what does not work and why.

This is the first newsletter of the evaluation and you can expect to see them on a quarterly basis – February 2010, May 2010, August 2010, November 2010 and the final edition in February 2011. The evaluation covers work in school and community settings so we hope that there will be something for everyone involved in RiCs delivery in this newsletter.

Evaluation Updates You can find all the latest news at the new Recruit into Coaching (RiC) website. Visit www.sportscoachuk.org and click on the RiC option under Research. All the case studies and news bulletins produced as part of the study will be kept here with more to come as the evaluation grows.

If you have any feedback on the website please contact Lucy Winder at lwinder@sportscoachuk.org Nine good practice (approximately every other month) case studies will be produced over the course of the evaluation – work has already started on the production of these so expect to see cases studies on recruitment, pooling of funding and

deployment of coaches. These will be available on the website. If there are any topics you would like exploring or if you think you have some examples of good practice please let Lucy know. You can call her on 0113 204 3511.

Alongside the good practice case studies, impact evaluation case studies are also being produced. Impact evaluation case studies will concentrate on one RiC area intensively looking at what has worked, not worked and most importantly why across all the partners and delivery agencies involved.

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Winter 2009

Recruitment has started for the Recruit Tracking Survey which will track around 250 coaches for the lifetime of the programme. There has been good interest so far from a number of recruits but we still need lots more to put themselves forward so that we have a good sample to work with. Thank you to all of you who have distributed the information to your recruits. If you would like more information on this part of the evaluation or you need copies of the materials (letter for recruits and an optin form) please contact Lucy.

A little reminder for all those who have promised Lucy recruit contacts. Please could you send them through as soon as possible so that recruits can be invited to take part. Remember the recruits who do take part will receive regular copies of the coaching edge which is the leading magazine in the sector.

© Action Images Limited/Reuters

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Success Stories!

When a North London CSP wanted to enhance their netball provision, they found RiC was the perfect opportunity to fill the gap in their coaching provision.

Pro-Active North London CSP has been working hard with England Netball to develop and enhance opportunities for young people in the area to become more involved in netball. However, through their work on the Sport Unlimited programme, it became clear that there was a distinct lack of qualified coaches in the area to deliver training to participants.

Then along came RiC! Pro-Active North London recognised the RiC programme would be a good opportunity to train some recruits to become Level 1 Netball Coaches to deliver on the Sport Unlimited project.

‘Tip off’ for RiC and netball in North London started in mid July and already eight candidates between the ages of 18 and 40 have passed their Level 1 Netball coaching award.

With more recruits in the programme, opportunities for both potential players and coaches in North London are certainly on the up.

For more information on this please contact Erica Crichlow at Haringey Council at Erica.Crichlow@haringey.gov.uk Continued overleaf

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Winter 2009

Continued from previous page For 24-year-old Ryan Abeleda, RiC has been the first step towards coaching recognition and employment.

It was an email from his local basketball club that first alerted Ryan to the RiC programme.

Enthusiastic from the off, he started on a Community Sports Leaders award before an interest in football lead him to complete his Level 1 coaching qualification in March 2008.

Ryan completed his mandatory 15 voluntary hours with Southwark Council’s youth inclusion programme Southwark Community Games (SCG). During this time Ryan was mentored by Pablo Blackwood, one of SCG’s top coaches, who provided guidance with weekly feedback sessions and help with a progression plan that was reviewed every two weeks.

Following an evaluation with the mentor, RiC management and SCG management, Ryan gained employment with Southwark Community Games. Described as a ‘great asset to coaching in the community’ by Nicola Donnelly, Sports Development Officer at Southwark Council, Ryan is still retained within RiC and we wish him all the best for his Level 2 basketball qualification in December.

For more information please contact Nicola at Southwark Council at Nicola.Donnelly@southwark.gov.uk Recruit into Coaching helps the move from volunteering into employment Tom was 15 when he started volunteering in Hastings with the Football in the Community Project. When this funding ran out he was able to keep up his involvement thanks to the new Active Streetgames project, delivering doorstep sport in areas of deprivation.

While volunteering at Streetgames Tom achieved his Community Sports Leader award and FA Level one qualifications in outfield play and goalkeeping. Recruit into Coaching then provided the opportunity for further qualifications as he successfully completed Level 2 awards in football and dodgeball.

© Alan Edwards

Now 17, Tom has moved from a volunteer helping out at sessions to a paid member of staff and session leader in Hastings. He is currently working towards his ‘A’ levels and then hopes to move on to University where he wants to study to be a PE teacher.

Coach Deployment As the current recruitment drive continues to increase the number of coaches we are working with, it will be important to deploy our coaches for two reasons; 1. As a key tool in the continued development of individual coaches.

Research shows us that reflection on coaching practice is the major contributor to developing expertise – therefore gaining that coaching experience is a vital component of continual improvement 2. To assist in the goal of creating more and/or better coaching opportunities linked to the Five Hour Offer. Beginner coaches should be ably supported in their coaching practice by a suitably qualified lead coach or teacher, and this can contribute to improving coach to player ratios and the quality of sessions. More experienced and suitably qualified coaches can lead sessions and are able to provide new opportunities for young people in school or community settings.

The above will help us achieve our ultimate goal of developing active, skilled and qualified coaches in support of the Five Hour Offer. With this in mind the Evaluation Team will be providing you with further resources to support you in delivering high quality Deployment opportunities over the forthcoming months.

How you can contribute?

Do you have an example of good practice you would like to share? If so, please send it through to Lucy at lwinder@sportscoachuk.org. This information can then be used to develop good practice case studies or news items for the quarterly news bulletin.

As you will see from the evaluation up dates, we are running a Recruit Tracking Survey which will provide us with some interesting data from our recruits on their motivations to coach, how they like to learn and what their coaching aspirations, are amongst other things. We need to recruit at least 250 participants to this survey so passing on contact details of your recruits, if possible, would be really useful. See the evaluation updates section for more details.

Next Newsletter...

The next edition of the RiC newsletter is due out in February 2010, so please keep your good news stories and other news items coming through.

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