How are we doing to address the barriers

[Clive Coles]

Just happend to have been re-reading parts of the Whole Sports plan ~ how sad but it's a miserable day ! The following paper caught my eye which is stored on the BOF web site

http://www.britishorienteering.org.uk/downloads/documents/governance_wsp_clubprojectsandbarriers.pdf

I just wonder how we have been addressing the issues listed as barriers over the last 2 years. BOF have been very active restructuring the sport and increasing manpower aimed at providing better support. Has our time and money been correctly focused ?

Are we any further forward in overcoming these barriers? Let's share our successes.

[besty]

Some of the barriers mentioned by SYO and some of the projects outlined are listed below with comments

Barrier
Volunteers - difficult to get planners, controllers and organisers and lack of controllers, planners and organisers courses in the region - perhaps we could look more creatively about how we deliver these.
This is still an issue but in the last two years in Yorkshire and the Humber there have been 3 UKCC level 1 coaching courses, a mappers' course, a planners’ course and a Grade 3 controllers’ course. There is still a real need to develop short courses which are more accessible to people who have less and less time to volunteer.
Barrier
Size of the regional squad. YHOA squad is getting so large that it is difficult to find venues and volunteers to deliver the value needed to the members - potential to split into two, or by standard reached (eg potentially a high performance group) - or by splitting by club.
SYO are now part of the Talent programme with a club junior squad which will give greater identity to the junior members with potential

Barrier
Increasing need for professional administrators as the funding model changes for the region and the club - this is not on the radar at the moment.
This is no longer an issue as Sport England have not devolved their grant regionally

Project
Club and Coach scheme will help drive increased numbers of coaches and grow lasting
junior participation.
Although Club and Coach money has only just arrived SYO have proactively started on projects which have resulted in appointing a Lead Coach (Graham Gristwood) to oversee their whole coaching programme; an Assistant Lead coach (John Rocke) who is running coaching sessions every week at the Club’s new base in Sheffield Hallam University where weekly sessions attract about 20 members, mainly club members who are relatively recent recruits (i.e. within the last three years) and the sessions also cater for new members (about 20% of attendees). Two coaches (Jill Gorvett and Colin Best) work at creating community links and at the moment provide coaching for schools in curriculum time and after school. These coaches are being paid courtesy of Club and Coach funding and Participation project but there are lots of volunteer coaches who will be recompensed by accessing coaching qualifications, again funded by Club and Coach
Project
Satellite club projects with Sports Partnerships (eg in Doncaster) still in their infancy will help to grow participation and improve accessibility
After April there will be a satellite club set up in Barnsley with the support of the Participation Manager and the two Schools Sport Partnership Development Managers in Barnsley. Tim Mullett will be the Lead Coach. This will hopefully provide orienteering for people in Barnsley
Project
Other major developments (eg links with Arches sports partnership in Sheffield) give us a physical base from which to grow participation.
Actually we have not used a school base for our club night but we have strong links with all four School Sports Partnerships in Sheffield.
I can’t give you exact figures for our membership (our membership Sec. Is away competing in Portugal) but I can say membership is growing and mainly as a result of developing community links. The club feels very vibrant and newcomers feel part of a real club with a physical base, not just a network of people.

British Orienteering central office has assisted us by providing coaching staff to run courses and bursaries which have enabled orienteers in Yorkshire and the Humber to access coaching courses. The Participation Manager has assisted us in developing our plans for coaching and in setting up our clubnight.