Sport England
Sport England provides the strategic lead for sport in this country and is a distributor of lottery funds to this country. Our mission is to make England an active and successful sporting nation.
Sport England’s investment in the Manchester Commonwealth Games made the Games happen. Our investment was not just for the ten days of the event, it was for the 30 years following the Games.
Sport England invested £165 million in the Commonwealth Games to:
present a world class environment
achieve a lasting legacy for sport
provide a catalyst for regeneration
support Team England
The local community now have guaranteed access to a range of excellent venues and benefit from an extensive sports development programme. Some of the equipment used during the Games has been passed on to local sports clubs, ensuring a legacy of sport rather than a legacy of debt.
The Games have created a series of new opportunities for venues and helped Salford Quays host triathlon events, including in July 2003, the first World Cup event to be held in Britain.
In addition, our investment is helping to enhance regeneration in Manchester and the surrounding area, improving the commercial potential and creating jobs. An extra 300,000 tourists, generating £18m, will visit the city this year, more local investment is estimated at £22m, and 6,300 new jobs have been created with applications to attend Manchester University up by 22% since the Commonwealth Games.
Wider Opportunities
Sport England took the lead on a number of initiatives, particularly targeted at young people, which boosted awareness of opportunities to participate in sport and create future interest and activity:
Volunteer programme
Without the 10,000 people who took up voluntary roles, the Commonwealth Games could not have happened. Sport England played a major part in creating opportunities for local people to become volunteers, devising and targeting special courses to encourage people living in deprived areas.
Games Time Volunteers: North West sports volunteers who signed up via the Volunteer Investment Programme Games hotline had the opportunity to be recognised for their experience and commitment to volunteering through an enhanced opportunity to act as volunteers at the Games.
Games Experience (Pre Volunteer Programme): a Foundation course for people volunteering within community sport and targeted areas of deprivation. Basic training courses were provided in event volunteering and sports development, delivered by local colleges and sports development teams. A Sport England initiated course ‘Get started in Sports Development’ was well received in the North West and will be rolled out nationally during 2003.
Sport England supported the Millennium Volunteer Sports Network North West (MVSNNW), aimed at young people aged between 16 and 24, who undertake up to 200 hours of voluntary work on different projects. Each Millennium Volunteer was rewarded with an enhanced chance to join the Commonwealth Games Volunteer Crew 2002. Thanks to the success of the Games volunteer programme, the MVSNNW successfully obtained an extension to its contract from the DfES for a further two years.
Volunteer legacy
Immediately after the Games, Sport England and the five North West County Sports Partnerships teamed up with do-it.org to create a new service for people who wanted to or were interested in sports volunteering. Interest in sport was ignited and rekindled following the successes of the Commonwealth Games, and the new service matches potential volunteers with volunteering opportunities.
Registration is online at http://www.do-it.org.uk/find_opp/sport .
Once individuals register Sport England and the County Sports Partnerships work with local sports clubs to find them suitable volunteering roles and activities or hold their details to be considered for any future major sporting event.
For details of sports development and volunteering initiatives in the five North West counties, contact the appropriate County Sports Partnership:
Cumbria Sport – http://www.cumbriasport.com
GreaterSport (Greater Manchester) – http://www.greatersport.co.uk
Lancashire Sport – http://www.lancashiresport.com
Merseyside Sport – http://www.merseysidesport.com
Sport Cheshire – http://www.sportcheshire.org
Sport England has also been involved in the work of the Post Games Volunteer Project (PGVP). The PGVP aims to provide a wide range of quality opportunities for people who wish to continue their involvement, or become involved for the first time in volunteering. Sport is benefiting across the region thanks to PGVP, with a number of events having made use of motivated and experienced volunteers, such as: Festival Europa; BBC Blue Peter Bikeathon; the Manchester Irish Festival; the U.K. Cheerleading Championships; the European Blind Football Championships; and, the five North West County Youth Games.
Through its partnership working with Jobcentre Plus, United Utilities and Manchester Enterprises PGVP will build on the volunteering initiative to develop a programme of additional support for those volunteers who are seeking employment.
For further details, see http://www.pgvp.co.uk
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