Spoon Community Projects 41
grateful to Barclays Spaces for Sports and Sport England for believing in Spoon and investing in the FairPlay project. Through the lifetime of this project Spoon and our partners have learnt a great deal about what makes a good community programme. Lessons learnt from this and Spoon’s other operational project work have informed the creation of the Game On standard, through which Spoon and our partners aims to create a recognised standard of excellence for the delivery of rugby based community projects that engage disadvantaged children and young people in the British Isles. Thanks again to the RFU for delivery of the project and to Corporate Citizenship for providing the M&E [monitoring and evaluation].’
For more information and to read the full FairPlay supported by Barclays Spaces for Sports programme evaluation report visit
www.woodenspoon.com/projects
In Touch
Earlier this year the final students graduated from the In Touch project delivered by AVIVA Premiership Rugby Club, Worcester Warriors. 68 young people from across Worcestershire benefitted from the programme and gained 198 new qualifications on their way to creating a brighter future for themselves. A recent post programme follow up revealed that 85% of programme graduates remained engaged in education, employment or training for at least three months beyond graduating from In Touch.
For the last two years the Community
Team at the Sixways based club, supported by Wooden Spoon and Talbot Underwriting, has been working with NEET (not in education, employment or training) young people from across Worcestershire who had been identified by local youth services as being at high risk of long term unemployment. A total of 200 guided learning hours were delivered allowing participants to undertake a range of sporting and personal development qualifications. In February as the Warriors were preparing for their excellent home victory against Premiership champions Saracens, Wooden Spoon went back to Sixways to see what some of the programme graduates were up to now and if their lives were still back on track. We met Scott watching the game with his friends. This is Scott’s story.
Scott Sellars – In Touch programme member
Scott was referred onto the programme by his advisor at Connexions. Having left school, he wasn’t enrolled on any further education courses or in employment. Scott had a keen interest in sport, particularly rugby and cricket, and saw the In Touch programme as a way of enhancing his opportunities. In Touch confirmed to Scott that a career in the sports industry is something that he would like to do and the positive feedback he received gave him the confidence to pursue a career in this area. At graduation he said: “I know I will have to work hard but I hope
that I can get some opportunities to work as a coach. I have also contacted the University regarding a sports coaching award and now know how many points are needed for such a degree. I’m going to gain as much experience as I can, but I am now aiming to go back into full time education next year.”
Scott is currently studying and working on an Advanced Electrotechnology apprenticeship programme that lasts approximately two years. When asked about this apparent career change Scott said, “After graduating from the In Touch course I wanted to become a sports coach, but when I was looking into future careers I thought that it would take me a long time to find full time work. I decided to find a different apprenticeship scheme but I hope to continue coaching as a volunteer.” Scott is also studying for a Freelance Journalism Diploma from the British School of Journalism.
Steve Joslin, Community Rugby Manager for Worcester Warriors said,
“The value of the project can be shown in how quickly the students are finding new opportunities for education / employment as a direct result of being part of the In Touch course. In Touch should be seen as a springboard for the future and everyone at Warriors Community Department wishes our students every success in their careers. We would like to thank our project funders, Wooden Spoon and Talbot Underwriting, for investing in this project which makes such a positive impact on the students who have taken part.”
Worcester Warriors hosting a fantastic event for the InTouch participants
For further information contact Jai Purewal, Development Director of Spoon Community Projects, jpurewal@
woodenspoon.com
www.woodenspoon.com Spring 2012 Spoonews
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