Our strategic partners Yorkshire Sport Foundation have set up the Active Burngreave Training Hub to share local expertise, upskill workforces and empower organisations delivering sport and physical activity in the community.
Four Sheffield-based Levelling the Playing Field specialist partners – Reach Up Youth, Zest, Unity Gym and Saalik Young People (formerly Ellesmere Youth Project) – are involved in the Hub. It has been set up to identify gaps in local provision and use its collective pool of knowledge and resources to try and fill them (or access appropriate training to upskill people in order to fill the gaps themselves).
Mentoring plays a big part in the support offered by the Hub. Local mentors will support leaders, staff or volunteers through qualifications or training, developing their confidence and competence around any element of delivering sport and physical activity and improving health and wellbeing.
For example, one local organisation has accessed the Hub for mentoring support in applying to become a Community Interest Company (CIC). Another recent meeting at the Hub saw two young leaders from Reach Up Youth ask for help in delivering sport to disabled children. Levelling the Playing Field have stepped in to fund a Disability UK course for the pair.
“This is ultimately about tuning into what local people and organisations need, understanding where their skills and strengths lie, and matching them with each other to work together and offer mutual support,” said Kathryn Mudge, Development Manager (Communities) at Yorkshire Sport Foundation.
Kathryn added: “As a city, we’ve spent an awful lot of money in the past bringing in external expertise when we could have done it ourselves, with a bit of support and structure, by accessing great local people who have the skills already.
“The Hub is a product of us recognising that ‘going on a course’ doesn’t always work. To plug gaps in provision, it often needs longer-term support and mentoring, particularly in areas where community leaders, volunteers and staff have English as a second language or are fairly new to the world of policy, bureaucracy and navigating the system.
“The Hub will also help build people’s confidence to voice their opinion, or get them access to the ‘right table’ in order to exert an influence. They can then start challenging decisions and ensure projects are locally led.
“In the voluntary sector, people have busy schedules and can’t benefit from the ‘watercooler conversations’ and conferences of the professional world. They miss those crucial networking opportunities. We’re trying to offer that across the city of Sheffield and eventually all of the county.”
Levelling the Playing Field specialist partners Saalik Young People is also supporting the Hub. Its director and local resident Imran Ali is mentoring groups and individuals. Partners such as StreetGames or Sheffield & Hallamshire FA have offered free or discounted courses to upskill leaders and coaches.
Yorkshire Sport Foundation’s own mentors are also on hand to support people in whatever they want to achieve. For example, Yorkshire Sport Foundation's Sheffield Community Development Officer Faisal Eid is helping two young leaders from Reach Up Youth, Tyrone and Umar (pictured above), with the administrative side of leadership: writing reports and emails, policy, developing ideas and speaking at meetings.
Supporting Tyrone and Umar is part of a push to increase the number of skilled community leaders in their early 20s who have that crucial element of relatability with participants. “We want to bring in new blood,” says Kathryn. “The majority of our current community leaders are a little bit older so we want to identify the leaders of the future.”
Summarising the project’s impact, Kathryn says: “The Hub is going to build a network of highly skilled, highly qualified community leaders delivering excellent provision within neighbourhoods – initially in Burngreave, but eventually across the whole of Sheffield.”
Main pic (l-r): Sheffield Community Development Officer Faisal with Umar and Tyrone from Reach Up Youth