In her latest blog, Alliance CEO Emma Boggis talks about the Step Up To Serve campaign and why it's important that sport and recreation organisations get involved.
The Sport and Recreation Alliance has pledged its support to Step Up To Serve’s #iwill campaign.
The campaign is led by the Prince of Wales and has the support of all three main party leaders.
Under the “#iwill” banner, the campaign vision is to make social action and volunteering a normal practice among 10-20 year-olds, whatever their background, by 2020.
We believe that this is an excellent initiative which will help the sector. To show that we think it's a good idea and to help support and spread the word of #iwill amongst the sport and recreation sector, the Alliance has developed its own pledge.
The Sport and Recreation Alliance will pledge to:
• Publicly affirm the importance of youth social action for the sport and recreation sector
• Encourage our members to support the campaign and identify actions they can take to encourage and support youth social action opportunities
• Advocate and lead – lend a voice to the social action agenda through publicly supporting social action at a senior level
• Value the skills developed by social action during recruitment processes
• Use our volunteering days to promote and deliver social action opportunities
• Aim to get at least 25% of members to make a pledge by the end of 2015
Why are we doing this? Well, because volunteers are fundamental to all of us, particularly to sport and recreation clubs. So supporting a campaign which encourages more young people to do it has to be a win/win.
Alongside Step up to Serve, we have also developed a pledge specifically for the sport and recreation sector which we are encouraging all of our members to adopt.
The sport and recreation pledge simply states that:
"We believe passionately in the power of youth social action to help young people develop the skills and qualities to reach their full potential and make a significant contribution to their communities. The sport and recreation sector cannot survive without the commitment and hard work of thousands of volunteers who give their time and energy to help our activities flourish.
As a member of the Sport and Recreation Alliance supporting the campaign, We Will step up to serve and help all young people to have every opportunity to serve others."
There is of course, no reason why our members and sports organisations can’t tailor the pledge to tie it into pre-existing programmes linked to young people and social action.
Whatever pledge you adopt and action you take, we think it’s a worthwhile campaign – that has the potential to help us all develop the next generation of volunteers.
To find out how to make your pledge, click here.
For more information on Step up to Serve, click here.
