Saturday 25th January 2020, 1100-1700
Every year, LEAP Sports Scotland hosts a conference for its volunteers to celebrate the successes of last year and look forward to the year ahead.
Within LEAP Sports, there are a number of capacities which volunteers can undertake including;
⭐Events Support Volunteer – they are responsible for preparation of materials and resources, and do a lot of “behind the scenes” work when LEAP Sports sends representatives to various events.
⭐ Events Stall Volunteer – they are really the face of LEAP Sports, who are out speaking with the public and promoting the work of LEAP Sports and its partnerships at various events.
⭐Policy Volunteer – they work on support organisations, sports clubs and bodies to create or edit their inclusion policies to ensure best practice. They also carry out research to ascertain a need for funding applications, as well as carrying out literature reviews to have information and guidance available for a range of needs and requirements.
⭐ Social Media Volunteer – they attend events and promote the day through various social media platforms. They also work to raise the profile of LEAP Sports and its online presence, promoting celebrations across cultures and highlighting events.
We carried out a Human Library where we were able to discuss our own experiences of our Volunteer roles as well as listen to others and decide if that role would also be of interest.
Next, we created a tartan (as it was Burns Day) where each stripe of tartan represented what connects all volunteers. This included; dedication to the LGBTQ+ community, working to eradicating homophobia in sport, motivating and empowered, multi-agency working, to name a few.
After lunch, we carried out a team building orienteering activity in Kelvingrove Park, working together to find letters hidden around the park to spell out “volunteer”.
Afterwards, we carried out evaluations of our experiences of volunteering for LEAP Sports, discussing what works well and we enjoy, what we would like to see more of and ways we can improve in the coming year.
To conclude the conference, we had breakout sessions for either Policy or Events. I choose to go to the Policy Breakout Session as it is something I find really interesting and would like to have more awareness of how Policy work is implemented within LEAP Sports. We discussed the current policy work which LEAP Sports is currently involved in and the organisations associated with this, as well as plans for future works which require Policy Volunteers. I a, already a part of this as I have began my report on LGBTIQ+ Young People’s Experiences of PE report, which will hopefully be used as part of promoting LEAP Sports Manifesto for Inclusive Physical Education, aimed at teachers.
I found the conference to very informative and I left feeling empowered in my volunteer role and looking forward to the year ahead.
