New Sports Leaders in Amber Valley
Amber Valley Borough Council Sports Development has just completed their Autumn Community Sports Leader Award course at Charles Hill Sports Complex, Loscoe.
The highly rated British Sports Trust course for those 16 years old or above, covers a variety of leadership skills, including Planning, Organising, Safety, Games Experience, Adaptation of Games, Communication, Heath & Fitness, Team Building and Evaluation, and was run over a week.
In addition to this, each candidate has to complete a further 10 hours under supervision leading sport in the community as part of the Borough Sports Leadership Development Programme.
Amber Valley Sports Development Tutors run 9 Sports Leadership courses annually working in partnership with Schools, Special Schools, Sports Clubs, Community Associations and Town and Parish Councils and the Connexions Service.
Many of the young leaders have spent years on the multi-faceted Borough programme which in priority areas can begin from as young as 6 years old but generally begins in Junior school. Their progress is monitored and they receive training under mentor coaches. The purpose of the programme is to build confidence, develop leadership skills and engender a sense of citizenship in participants, with an emphasis of increasing the number of young people volunteering in sport.
Over 1700 young people have gone through the broader programme this year with independent research showing that 60% of young people in Amber Valley schools claimed involvement in some aspect of the programme. 16 young leaders from this scheme have been rewarded with Derbyshire Young Achievers awards for their commitment in developing sport in their community and 18 have travelled as ambassadors for Amber Valley to the Borough's Mini-Olympics sport and cultural exchange events with Local Authorities in Sweden and Poland over the last two years. The scheme has been developed over the last 7 years in response to parents requests for healthy personal development opportunities for their children and teenagers and has won three nominations for best practice.
The scheme is available to anybody who lives within the Amber Valley area. Anyone requiring further information should contact the Sports Development Officer on 01773 841443