Amber Valley Building Bridges in Europe
Amber Valley Borough Council Sports Development have just completed two courses designed to train Young Leaders and Teachers from Sweden, Poland and Amber Valley, in the delivery of the British Sports Trust Junior and Community Sports Leader courses. The courses resulted from leaders workshops at the recent Mini-Olympics held in Laholm, Sweden where Amber Valley were asked to share knowledge on their award winning Sports Leadership Development Programme. The Mini Olympics are part of a very successful Twinning scheme in Culture and Sport involving 15 year olds from 5 European Local Authorities.
The visitors attended a week long Community Sports Leader course run by Sports Development tutors at Charles Hill Sports Complex, Loscoe. This was followed by a one day Tutors course especially arranged and run by British Sports Trust Tutors. The Tutors course was also attended by local Secondary School heads of PE, who will be running the course in their schools, senior sports leaders who have advanced through the Amber Valley Leadership Programme and trainees on the Connexions E2E Sports Leadership scheme with the Borough.
The Swedish and Polish leaders Andreas Ottosson and Marlena Lewczuk-Lis were very impressed by the courses and aim to accredit with British Sports Trust to run their own courses next year. They?ll be assisted in this process through a partnership between Amber Valley Borough Council Sports Development and British Sports Trust. The next step in the plan is for the two countries to implement the wider aspects of Amber Valley?s Leadership Development Programme. Senior Training Officer Andy Callard and Regional Development Officer David Savidge of the British Sports Trust commented on the high standard of the training leaders and expressed their enthusiasm at being involved in this innovative project. Amber Valley Borough Council Sports Development have worked in partnership with the British Sports Trust for the last 7 years and have run over 30 leadership courses in this time. Sports Development Officer Chris Pienaar said;
?Having done a lot of informal personal development work on our sports outreach sites we were asked by those under training if they couldn?t get some kind of qualification for what they had learned. A wide ranging search led us to the BST Leader awards, which were tailor made for our work. The courses have formed the backbone of our Leadership Development Programme ever since and have been very effective in providing a high level of education, which is accessible both to high achievers and those who may struggle in the classroom?.
Over 60 percent of young people independently surveyed in Amber Valley schools claim to have been involved in some aspect of the Boroughs Sports Leadership Programme. 16 of these young sports leaders have won Derbyshire Young Achievers awards for outstanding service to their communities volunteering in sport and 18 have won nominations to attend the Mini-Olympics for the same reason.
Pictured are all the participants who were welcomed by His Worship the Mayor of Amber Valley Mr Alan King and Mrs King.