East Durham Trust

Aims

The Sports Mentorship Programme aims to increase the number of appropriately qualified and highly motivated sports coaches who are able to deliver good quality fun sessions in order to help increase sport and physical activity within the area as East Durham has a lower than average participation rate in physical activity which affects the health and wellbeing of our population. 

Mechanism

The Mentorship Programme has been designed, steered and developed with the help of the Active Easington Network (East Durham’s Community Sports Network) to address the gaps, barriers and difficulties encountered when trying to develop and retain a good quality coaching workforce in the East Durham area. It works collectively with key partners to;

• identify, engage, recruit, develop and retain appropriate local people into sports coaching,
• offer a tailored package to meet individual needs by:
  • providing help, support, guidance and training opportunities
  • supporting them through sport specific and sport related qualifications
  • identifying and securing appropriate coaching placements
  • recruiting appropriately qualified and experienced mentors and assigning them to mentees based on individual need
  • developing a local coach support network 

What the Mentorship Programme has achieved so far

The programme has been in operation since December 2008 and has been hugely successful, with many achievements to date (January 2011) including:-

• 52 additional hours of physical activity per week has been delivered by coaches from the Mentorship Programme in a variety of settings throughout East Durham including; after school clubs, sports clubs, sports development programmes and holiday schemes.
• 31% have secured some paid coaching, either casual, part or full time:
• 1 coach has gained full time paid employment, 
• 16 have gained paid casual coaching work - 5 who were already paid casual coaches have gained additional hours and 11 other coaches have secured some casual paid coaching hours.
• 95% of all participants have actively coached in our community over the period of the programme either in a voluntary or paid capacity
• 76% of those who were supported  through the programme are still currently coaching in East Durham either in a paid or voluntary capacity
• 62 coaches have been successfully supported to complete 258 qualifications (both sports specific and sports related qualifications e.g. 1^st Aid, Safeguarding Children etc.).
• 19 experienced and highly skilled coaches have been recruited as volunteer Mentors
• Active Easington Partners are able to confirm numerous examples of how the programme has helped them to deliver their objectives. 

If you are interested in finding out more about the Mentorship Programme then please ring Sam Morgan on 0191 569 3511.

To download the Sports Mentorship leaflet click here