This is my 6th blog about my placement year at London 2012 Olympic legacy charity Join In UK.
This month has been quite quiet at the organisation, with business resuming as usual. However, there have been a few exciting projects that I have had the chance to get involved with.
The ‘UK Sport’ athlete visits project…
I first got involved with this back in November. The project involves matching up UK Sport funded athletes with their local sports clubs. The athletes make a volunteering visit to the club, and get involved with coaching, refereeing or another activity. It is a great way for athletes to give something back to grassroots sport as well as younger participants to have a role model. I have managed to arrange a couple of visits recently, and it is really enjoyable to see how grateful the clubs are to have an elite athlete visit their club. It is also inspiring for young people to meet the athletes and have a chance to hear how hard they work and how disciplined their training and competition schedules are. A couple of the athletes Join in has matched to clubs are currently trialling for places to go to Rio, which makes it even more exciting!
Major events…
One of the main features of Join in is promoting volunteer opportunities at major sporting events in the UK. There have been a large number of volunteering opportunities promoted on the website so far this year, some examples include; Hockey Championships trophy, Lords Cricket Ground events, British Athletics Championships and a host of marathons all over the UK. Although Join in is primarily for supporting volunteer opportunities in the UK, the charity has helped promote volunteer roles for the 2016 Olympic Games held in Rio this summer. Those who have been selected to volunteer in Rio unfortunately have to expense their trip, but its still a very unique chance to be amongst the excitement of the event.
‘Skills’ training…
Over the last month I have had the chance to benefit from some ‘skills’ training at work. Different people from Join in have been running sessions based on their expertise. It has been good to have some knowledge in areas I was unfamiliar in, for example, digital marketing, Google analytics, PR, media and a very worthwhile session on CV’s and interviews.
Over half way through…!
I can’t believe how fast placement has gone, I have now done 9 months of placement! But in many ways it feels like I have been working at Join in for along time because I know the people well and how the organisation runs.
Although I still haven't 'warmed' to the daily train commute...
Louise Rose
Sports and Social Science