VOLUNTEERING

Volunteering to the Sport Sector in England

Volunteering to the Sport Sector in England

Introduction

Volunteers play an amazing role in staging a number of England's most celebrated sports events. Without volunteer workforce, the events just wouldn't take place. England's volunteering teams work with partners from both the sport and the wider third sector to make sure we can carry on and build upon our well-built custom of volunteering in sports.

"The voluntary sector in sport makes a massive contribution to the agenda of the British Sports Clubs through voluntary sector clubs and the structure and support provided by the national governing bodies of sport. Volunteering in sport is the most significant single area of formal volunteering. Voluntary sports clubs make a substantial contribution to social capital through both providing the structure which provides the opportunity for active citizenship to be expressed through volunteering, and the opportunities for social interaction, both for volunteers and participants. Voluntary sports clubs exhibit a remarkable degree of stability as social institutions and are a valuable social resource." (Watt 2003 225)

Benefits of Volunteering to the Sport Sector in England

Sports clubs offer the best opportunities to present volunteer help to UK's favorite sports. Volunteer roles include coaching, administration, refereeing, driving and management. It is widely recognised that British sport is built on the hard work and dedication of volunteers. A Sport England study in 2002 estimated that there were 5.8 million volunteers in sport. (Nicholson & Hoye 31)

Running sports is a Sport England programme dedicated to the education and training of volunteers. It is designed to help sports club officials and sports volunteers run their clubs as effectively as possible by addressing key issues such as volunteer management, club finances and development planning. (Hylton & Bramham 2007 45)

Volunteering is a particular strength of community sport within England. Some 1.9m people volunteer in sport for at least an hour each week - equivalent to a full-time workforce of over 80,000 employees. Sport England will maximise this natural resource through working with National Governing Bodies to attract and retain more volunteers, reduce the burdens faced by volunteers and ensure professional support enhances voluntary systems. Sport England will also work with the broader voluntary sector and partners such as Volunteering England to ensure that best practice is being appropriately deployed within the sport sector. (Zimbalist 2005 98)

Volunteering has benefits for three different sets of people: the volunteers themselves, the organisations they help, and the communities they volunteer in. (www.sportengland.org)

Individual club volunteers

For individual club volunteers, it is the 'social benefits' that people get from volunteering that are dominant, with the related concept of 'enjoyment' being the second most cited benefit. These top two benefits for individual volunteers are important to acknowledge in the context of increasing pressures on volunteers in sports organisations to 'perform' more professionally in their voluntary roles. (Watt 2003 226)

Greater efficiency in voluntary sports organisations should not threaten the primary motivations of the core volunteers running most of these organisations. (Haskins 2006 45)

Another worry here is that players are showing less and ...