Ten participants from our specialist partners Sports Key in Birmingham have been selected for the Commonwealth Games Gen22 programme to gain confidence and boost their employability.
The group of 16-24-year-olds all take part in Sports Key’s football, netball and cycling sessions. Joining the Gen22 programme sees them become part of a youth forum, work towards coaching and leadership qualifications and experience, and deliver social action projects.
The young people have already begun developing their skills by being given the responsibility of leading Sports Key sessions as football referees and netball umpires.
Gen22 is funding coaching courses such as a Tennis Activator qualification which will equip them to lead sessions. A recent CV writing course with Employability UK also gave them a further platform to build confidence, competence and build towards their futures. Together, they have formed a youth forum and will plan and deliver the annual Sports Key Games on July 24th, just before the start of Birmingham 2022 itself.
As part of the programme, participants will receive free tickets to Commonwealth Games events and get to meet athletes.
“Gen22 is all about giving them a pathway to succeed,” said Sports Key director Jeavon Nicely. “A lot of them are in limbo and currently unsure what route to take to get to where they want to be. This will hopefully be a big stepping stone.
“This is a great way of our young people to be involved in the Commonwealth Games, as many of them wouldn’t be able to access the main volunteering programme. It will give them a huge boost in self-esteem and improve their future employability.”
Sports Key recently received a huge boost with the announcement that they had received National Lottery Community Funding for three years. It enabled them to appoint three full-time directors. They have over 100 participants per week at their community football, badminton, netball, tennis and cycling sessions that take place across King Solomon School and the Doug Ellis Centre.
Jeavon said: “Our focus now is on building capacity, continuing to support social cohesion and responding to demand.”
Read more about our specialist partners Sports Key here.