TeamKinetic is a proud Manchester company, and I am unashamedly Mancunian. My town. I often jokingly refer to as the centre of the universe when in other cities and countries. So the despicable actions of an individual on Monday night in my city have cut to my core. I have experienced anger, sadness, confusion, back to anger and now resolve.
Manchester was where TeamKinetic was born, working with Manchester City Council 8 years ago, we built the first version of our Volunteer Management Platform. Our colleagues in Manchester City Council knew that its people were its true capital, that if we could make it easy for the people of Manchester to give their time and skills, they would do this freely and they would make this city a beacon for best practice for volunteering.
So, it was with extra confusion I found myself watching the news and hearing how this young man, who was born in Manchester has committed this heinous and cowardly act. I found myself questioning my city and to some extent the impact of my last 8 years of work. As an individual who has worked for most of his professional life as a teacher in Manchester, then on helping to build communities, I was left feeling frustrated, disappointed, and sad. Had my work be a waste, had we failed?
But yesterday evening I listened to the amazing stories of bravery and generosity that were told, from a homeless man running into danger to help the injured or how taxi drivers took young people home free of charge, how the people of Manchester rallied to offer accommodation, to raise money and to provide food and refreshments to those that needed them, to give blood and then to stand shoulder to shoulder against this mindless hate in a beautiful demonstration of the spirit of the city.
Events like that on Monday, born of hate, are designed to test our resolve, to instil a sense of fear across our city. They are a reminder to the us all that extremism continues to fester in the dark corners of our communities and there are people out there that are attracted to the rhetoric of hate.
It is with fresh resolve then that I move forward with our work, with the knowledge that the majority of people of Manchester, Britain and the world share our optimism in the human spirit. That the depraved acts of individuals and small numbers of extremists do not drive us apart, but bring us together to reinforce our shared humanity and drive us to continue to make our communities stronger and more resilient. We know this work will be difficult and there will be more dark days ahead where our resolve will be tested again, but working together, helping each other we will beat the hate with love and kindness.
The team at TeamKinetic send their heartfelt condolences to everyone that was affected by Mondays attack and we make the promise that we will continue with our work to help to build stronger communities in Manchester, the UK and the world.
As TeamKinetic makes it iOS application available to its customers and existing volunteers, we discuss the evidence that has driven this change and our hopes of making volunteering even more accessible.
The march of technology is relentless, and the pressure on organisations in sport and the 3rd sector to offer multi-channel and multi-platform solutions to better engage with their stakeholders continues to grow as they compete for attention against a sea of other content. These trends mean that making TeamKinetic available on mobile was essential.
mobile usage by country – Comscore
The data shows that the time spent on mobile has surpassed that spent on other web-enabled devices, and this trend is consistent in developed and developing economies. It is not a case of “if mobile is important?”, but to acknowledge its predominance in the decision-making process for future development.
Dominance of multi-platform applications
The evidence is clear; consumers now expect a multi-platform product that allows them to switch between the different versions of the platform, undertaking some tasks on their desktop and others on their phone or tablet. With other data suggesting these browsing choices are time of day dependent.
on-line device usage by time of day
When looking at how to engage with your audience, in our case volunteers. We have to accept these trends and offer a product that can cater to the desires and expectations of the user.
Using the mobile platform, both in its native application format and via the mobile browser, not only have we been able to increase the potential reach and time available to browse, we can also access additional functionality.
The use of GPS and geo-location services, open-auth protocols to make signing in and staying signed in easier and using the camera or address book are all examples of technologies that work particularly well on a phone to improve customer experience. Our founding belief at TeamKinetic is to always keep the volunteer and their experience central to our design philosophy, so the decision to create the app was easy to make.
This is our first step of many as a truly multi-platform company, no doubt we have plenty to learn if we want to recreate our desktop experience on a much smaller device, but working with our customers, that’s our ambition. The rewards for success for our customers, the Sports Clubs, charities and communities are potential too great to ignore.
We must constantly challenge ourselves to look at our organisations and consider how well we provide services and how accessible they are. We must push to deliver to stakeholders the experience they have come to expect.
TeamKinetic products will provide that level of service at a fraction of the cost of in-house development. Please get in touch to see a demo of our system and how it might improve your stakeholder engagement, build your community and change your world.
So as the dust settles on another funding announcement from Sport England, it’s clear we are definitely in uncharted territory. With many National Governing Bodies (NGBs) receiving significantly less than in previous periods we look at how the role of the volunteer will become essential in improving our sporting institution’s resilience.
The last round of funding covered 46 sports between 2013 and 2017 and with a total value of £493 million. The newly proposed £88 million spread across 26 sports, with four sports accounting for just under 50% of that funding is a deep cut to our sporting infrastructure. Sport England, operating in these austere times, have had to make some tough decisions and their new approach of encouraging NGB’s to focus on their “core market” may prove to be the best opportunity for a return on this significantly reduced investment. Only time will tell.
Further announcements are due in February, but it is doubtful that any major changes or reversals will be announced. What is clear based on the announcement yesterday is it is going to be a challenging environment for this next funding cycle.
So what do NGB’s do now?
Beyond getting all their members to start buying lottery tickets here are some ideas and thoughts that we thought it would be useful to share.
If all the NGB’s stopped existing tomorrow, would people still be playing sport this weekend?
I know this is something of a loaded question, of course, they will, but, only by relying on the ubiquitous and passionate volunteer-led sport across the country. NGB’s are still vital to the efficient delivery and development of their sports, but now they must learn to effectively leverage their volunteer base if they want to see their sport flourish under such deep cuts.
The growth of NGB’s over the last 20 years through the cash injection offered via lottery funding changed them in many cases into fully professional businesses that thought in terms of customers. They were more income-driven and had significant overheads to cover, as is typical during periods of rapid organisational growth. Of course, this led to improvements in a range of areas such as safety, facilities, professional levels of training, policy, etc.. and some of these improvements were drastically required. But in that jump to a more professional world, some of our traditional voluntary infrastructure struggled to keep up.
It is here that we think NGB’s can make some drastic gains with their core market. By understanding the many roles played by people at local, county, regional and even national level and what engages and motivates those individuals to give up their time is the area which could have the largest potential impact. How many of these functions are volunteers, even though many may not self-identify as such, is one of the many questions NGB’s need to answer. How do you upskill these people, how do you empower them and how to ensure you do not rely on the same individuals undertaking all the work every week.
This next four years is an opportunity to reinvent many NGB’s from the ground up, to look at how you make them local led grassroots organisations that can simultaneously grow participation, membership and customer base. To do this requires two of the most valuable resources available, people’s time and enthusiasm.
NGB’s will have to become much better at responding to the demands of their stakeholder base, of directly engaging and understanding what the volunteers who operate their clubs and county organisations want and need.
In 2016, there have never been more ways to participate at a local and hyper-local level. With more channels available via social media; new ways to raise capital via crowdfunding and peer-led lending. NGB’s that thrive will use this technology to drive the benefits and stories about their sport locally and nationally. This will not be a top-down marketing campaign as these are often very expensive, but it will be a bottom up user led movement. An example of the type of user led content I refer to can be found on line; right now there are 13.3 million Parkour and 4.6 million Freestyle football user-created videos on YouTube.
It will be the role of the NGB’s to make it easy for participants, volunteers, helpers, and officials to create and/or find existing communities where individuals can engage directly. We have used these concepts and ideas as we have developed our volunteer management platform TeamKinetic and we continue to try to build using these principals:
Empower people to do it for themselves.
Reward and recognise them and when they do, do it in a way that appreciates what motivates them.
Make getting involved easy to find and then intuitive to undertake.
Share your successes and your failures with your community so that everyone can learn.
Our technology is not for everyone right now, but we know these principals superseded the digital realm. Not everyone wants to engage via their computers or phone, but the principals stand no matter how you look to engage with the people who make your sport happen. We find its a combination of people, policy, process and technology that allows an organisation to scale the use of volunteers effectively.
If you would like to know how we can help you reconnect with your volunteer base, how our systems and research can empower more people to get involved and how you can recognise those people; who support your organisation week in, week out. Our work and that of our partners as part of the Join In consortium is available, and we are keen to talk to all NGB’s on how we can help you do more with less. Feel free to contact me at chris@teamkinetic.co.uk or call our office on 0161 914 5757.
The announcement earlier this year that Sport England had identified volunteering as a key area for investment and development in their “Towards An Active Nation” strategy document was widely welcomed. Today’s latest release “Volunteering in an Active Nation” is the next step in the realisation of that objective.
If you have been involved in sport at almost any level, you would have been keenly aware that it does not happen without the combined efforts of 100’s of people. From the top of sport to its very grassroots volunteers are essential. For so many years there was an assumption that organised sport just happened! This is a view TeamKinetic did not share, and we set out to change that seven years ago when we built VolunteerKinetic. It’s with a sense of excitement we have been waiting to see what Sport England had in mind to re-imagine the sports volunteer landscape.
The acknowledgement in the document for the Sport and Recreation Alliance and our consortium of partners is something we are really happy with, although it is still early days we have been really busy behind the scenes since we were passed the baton by Join In. Our hope is that through the work of the partners in the consortium we can provide a range of digital tools, research, campaign experience and support that will be invaluable in helping Sport England realise their vision. This will start this month with Sports Personality of the Year, and hopefully early in the new year, we will have even more to shout about.
The strategy commits to a £26 million investment, taking us to 2021, with £6 million available in the first round in February 2017.
The two initial funds are called
The Opportunities Fund – targeting people from disadvantaged areas.
The Potentials Fund – targeting 10 to 20 year olds.
Each fund is worth £3 million, and it seems quite clear that Sport England is very keen to widen volunteering to be more inclusive and representative.
THE OPPORTUNITY FUND
Initially making it clear that disadvantaged can mean many things to a broad range of communities, they go on to say they are looking for partners who are trusted in their local communities and will consider bids “which contain smaller elements of sport and physical activity.”
Maybe most telling is the final statement;
“To emphasise our commitment to reaching this new audience, we’re aiming to award at least 50% of the fund for projects run by partners who are new to Sport England or even new to sport and physical activity.”
This seems to fit with the information we have had before today’s announcement with Sport England keen to look beyond the more traditional and established sport offer. We think this fund provides some interesting opportunities for traditional organisations such as County Sports Partnerships and Local Authorities to work with less traditional partners such as youth and health groups, to provide infrastructure and support through volunteers for volunteers.
THE POTENTIALS FUND
Sport England have identified the benefits of “youth social action” which has been the focus of the #iwill campaign run by Step up to Serve. This campaign was recently granted a £40 million extension until 2020 by the Prime Minister, Theresa May.
Step Up To Serve CEO Charlotte Hill presented the keynote speech at our annual conference this year at Manchester Metropolitan University. The #iwill campaign offers an opportunity to recognise and acknowledge the role of youth social action and provides a route for young people to get involved. We advise every organisation who works with volunteers, to got to the #iwill website and make a pledge now.
The strategy does lack detail on what it may fund, but it does contain the provocative line “We’ll be looking for projects which connect with the lives and aspirations of 10 to 20 year olds. Sport and physical activity should be involved, but it doesn’t have to be the sole focus. We’re looking for brilliant ideas.”
We hope this allows for the type of innovation and creative engagement that will inspire young people to help lead this work. We will be looking at how we work with our current customers and those we have been speaking with for some time, to help integrate our digital tools to provide the type of experiences and bring to life the brilliant ideas young people have.
The document makes numerous mentions regarding “digital” and its importance. We will be working hard over the next few months to understand what that means and how to maximise our platform and its related connections. We will be exploiting all our years of expertise in the sports volunteer sector to make sure VolunteerKinetic remains the most powerful volunteer management system available.
I think that pretty much covers the main elements as we understand them, please share your opinions with us on this latest strategy announcement. We are keen to know what you think and how you might be able to benefit, or if you think Sport England may have missed anything. We believe that this is where the hard work starts and we are ready to roll up our sleeves and get stuck in. If you want to join us on this mission, don’t hesitate to get in touch.
TeamKinetic has been working to improve the experience and opportunities available to people in sport for almost a decade. We are excited to announce we are now part of a partnership that will help to deliver Sport England’s new Volunteering in an Active Nation vision.
In September, the Sport and Recreation Alliance was handed the baton from the Join In Trust to work with partners to continue to focus on sport volunteering. TeamKinetic is delighted to be a part of this partnership working with Do-it.org, GLL, Jump, Volunteering Matters and Greater Sport.
Because of the importance of volunteering in sport and recreation, the partnership has come together under a shared vision to make volunteering in sport more accessible and more appealing to a diverse range of people. We want to see more people sharing their professional skills, experience and enthusiasm for sport and recreation, and we want them to feel that their efforts to help others are valued and that they benefit from being involved.
We welcome the opportunity to work with the Sport and Recreation Alliance and partners to develop an effective matching service that will make it as easy as possible for people and clubs, organisations and events which need volunteers to find each other.
The ability for universities to prepare students with the skills and experience required by businesses is critical in today’s competitive economy.
Students at The University of East London (UEL) are offered the chance to build a strong portfolio of voluntary work placements within local, national, public and third sector organisations, giving them the experience and contacts to assist them after they graduate.
Why Did They Change?
Their previous volunteer management system offered few customisation tools, meaning that they couldn’t capture some key pieces of information. The limited reporting library also meant they had very limited insight into how much volunteering was actually happening, and if that experience was good or bad.
Frequently students and organisations would avoid updating their details simply due to the awkwardness of the user interface, this eventually resulted in a system entirely out of date.
Students were often shown opportunities which no longer existed, or contact details that had since changed. This was very frustrating for both the students and the providers of the opportunities.
“These system limitations caused us to hold back on promoting the system, which reduced our visibility on and off campus”
Joe Crook – Volunteering Manager
The Move to TeamKinetic
UEL implemented TeamKinetic with a focus on boosting their student employability levels whilst also having the ability to recruit, manage and communicate with their volunteers directly through the system.
“With TeamKinetic, we now have access to the information we need in real-time, including who has signed up and who has completed their induction, and how many hours they have logged which is vital to our volunteer programme.”
Joe Crook – Volunteering Manager
Within 4 months UEL had enrolled over 350 students and 80 providers regularly adding opportunities. By allowing students and businesses to control their own information administration of the system is minimal.
“We spend around 6 hours per week administering the system, which is great as we now have more time to promote our service to local businesses and students.”
Joe Crook – Volunteering Manager
The reduced administration has allowed UEL to focus on marketing opportunities instead of getting caught up in the logistics. This has enabled them to utilise TeamKinetics feedback functions giving them valuable insight into the students’ experience, allowing them to develop and pass on best practice.
“The system has diversified the way that we communicate as we have started to use the functions that are available to us. We also actively use the online news feeds and case studies and this allows us to communicate to our volunteers much quicker and easier than before.”
Our community partners enjoy using the system due to its clean interface, the fact that the opportunities have an expiry date, and that they can add relevant information per position means the opportunities are always accurate and up to date. “
Joe Crook – Volunteering Manager
The Future
The success of the system has allowed UEL to focus on achieving higher conversation rates, from enrolment on the system to placement within a local business.
“We now know which students have signed up and are currently and actively volunteering on a variety of opportunities.”
The TeamKinetic platform is powerful and offers us unprecedented insight into our volunteering programme. The ability to personalise our online presence is fantastic, allowing us to customise the look of the site in line with our branding guidelines, giving us a much more professional feel to the site which is important when dealing with external businesses.
I have already recommended TeamKinetic to a number of Universities around the UK, if you want a professional looking volunteer programme, I advise you to take a look as it is superior to anything else I have come across.”
TeamKinetic are proud to announce that we are now a consortium partner working with the Sport and Recreation Alliance and Join In, alongside other recognised partners, who share the vision of growing the volunteer network, which is vital for the development of sport and activities, for both organisations and individuals within the future.
Throughout this partnership, Team Kinetic have a view to:
Ensure that more opportunities become available for a greater number of organisations. Therefore, promoting a positive message regarding volunteering to a wider audience.
Grow the future of volunteer research and assist with the management of volunteers, for a range of organisations.
To, Recruit, Reward and be Relevant within the market place.
Through working towards these goals, TeamKinetic are adding to the future of volunteer management and assisting with the recruitment for organisations who currently have/ or are looking to have volunteers that: take part within activities, improve an organisation with more active participants and can promote a healthier lifestyle. Demonstrating the importance of recruiting individuals who have been inspired and are interested to become active by volunteering, and are able to find the correct organisation in order to start taking part.
Overall, we share the vision with our fellow consortium partners that volunteering is integral to sport throughout every level and we will work together to make sure the future of sport and volunteering continues to grow and develop.
Welcome to the Special edition of the Park Champions newsletter
Our Park Champions celebrated!
Last Thursday, 6th October, we were delighted to host our annual celebration event at The Podium Bar & Kitchen. It was a fantastic evening that enabled us to say thank you to you – the volunteers who have participated in a range of activities within our Park Champion programme over the past year. Over 110 Park Champions attended and we hope all enjoyed themselves.
2016 has been a fantastic year with volunteers racking up a huge 12,800 volunteer hours. There has been an array of volunteering opportunities from providing information, welcoming guests and delivering the park mobility service at the Information Point to supporting the vast number of events including West Ham United and London Lions matches, National Paralympic Day and Sport Relief. Not forgetting those who really got their hands dirty during the conservation and gardening programme.
We are now looking forward to another exciting year in 2017, with a number of major events coming up on the Park. From the IAAF World Championships and World ParaAthletics Championships to community and sports events to help connect local people to the Park, there is sure to be something for everybody to get involved with. Once again we will be running our hugely successful Park mobility service and there will be many new roles to come with new Park partners so keep your eyes peeled for opportunities.
Congratulations to our Park Champions!
Once again we awarded gold, silver and bronze pin badges as a way of saying thank you for your enthusiasm, energy and dedication to the Park and our Park Champion programme.
Those that completed over 50 hours of volunteering were awarded with a bronze pin. For 100 hours of volunteering a silver pin was awarded and for an amazing 150 volunteer hours we awarded a gold pin.
If you are yet to achieve 50 hours do not worry as you still have until 31st December to claim your pin by racking up the hours – all those that have hit the required number of hours by this date will be awarded the pin. All hours will go back to zero on 1st January 2017.
A full list of the volunteers being awarded with pins to date is below, if you were unable to join us at the event last week please come to the Information Point when you are next on shift so that we can award you your pin.
Frank Scavera
736
Mark Orton
622.75
Sahidul Islam
401.5
Peter Barry
363.5
Keith Gabriel
359.25
Henry Mapperley
245
Graham Soames
227.25
Ricky Brown
203
Sarah Chapman
200.25
Edward Wingate
196.75
Olive Wenborn
187.75
Hilary Victor
183.5
Richard Darby
182.75
Lynn Barker
172
Catherine Ellis
149
Trudi Barnes
147.25
Pauline Djian
142
Viveca Dutt
140
Rohit Jobanputra
133.75
Janet Lowe
131.75
Anne Jennings
129.75
Brenda White
121.5
Christine Daniels
115.25
Jenny Marshall
112.5
Feras Al-hamadani
107
Jenni Hurme
99.5
Jacqui Gagan
98.75
Gillian Bourke
97.75
Clive Myers
94.5
Paul Harper
94.25
Alison Richmond
93.25
Jane Huntley
91.75
Oluwafunmike Akande
90.25
Ann Senior
88.5
Andy Macgarr
86.5
Lizzie Newbold
84.75
Alberto Carcaba
81
Karim El-houssami
79.75
Colin Plummer
79
Sally Elton
78.5
Laura Lincoln
77.25
Helen Roycroft
76
Di Russ
74.75
Steven Skamarski
74
Stephen Rowe
72
Pat Strange
66.25
Fatima Lee
65.5
Katie Blake
65.25
Liam Cornwall
64.5
Maggie Mathison
64.25
Lynne Ellis
62.5
Daniel Kovacs
61.5
Hasmita Shah
60.5
Ray Ellis
59.5
Shinobu Wakamatsu
58.75
Ben Waite
58.5
Pauline Martindale
57.75
Geoffrey Longster
57.5
Susan Marchant
57.25
Janet Lambert
57
Kathleen Mcenteggart
57
Janet Davies
56
Stephen Shooman
55.75
Jean Death
54.75
Jane Astin
54
Paul Lazarus
54
Gillian Morgan
52.75
Tim Benson
52.5
Kathryn Taylor Saunders
51.25
Tom Cavanagh
50
Park Champions ride the slide at the ArcelorMittal Orbit
Park Champions also had the opportunity to take on the world’s longest and tallest tunnel slide. It is fair to say that everybody that experienced the thrilling descent loved it! Following their hair-raising descent the volunteers and stakeholders went on a tour of the Park with our two community guides, Di and Stephen.
More photos of the trip are available on the Park Champions Facebook group.
Park Champions – Volunteer experience feedback
To ensure that we are developing a programme that is exciting, engaging, interesting and fun for you, your feedback is hugely important. This is your chance to give us your opinions on how the programme runs currently and how you would like to see it develop.
The world’s best athletes are coming back to London and this is your chance to see them compete for the title of World Champion at The Stadium, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
The London 2017 Organising Committee has launched its search for ‘Runners’ – the volunteer programme for the World ParaAthletics Championships and IAAF World Championships.
They are looking for up to 4,000 volunteers to be at the heart of the Championships, helping to deliver the event in The Stadium, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and across London.
The IAAF World Championships and World ParaAthletics Championships will be the biggest celebration of athletics in the capital since the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Being a Park Champion, your expertise and knowledge of the Park would be an incredible asset to the ‘Runners’ team. If you want to be part of the event please follow the link below: Who can be a Runner?
Everyone! Whatever your background or ability, there are no barriers to being one of our volunteers.
Every Runner will receive an official volunteer uniform to wear during shifts, which you can keep after the Championships as a souvenir, and meal vouchers for The Stadium, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
How do I get involved?
Applications are now open to become a runner and will close at midnight on Sunday 16th October 2016. If you would like any further information before applying, click here to visit the FAQs.
You can find TeamKinetic on social media and listen to our podcast:
Throughout the week of 3rd – 9th October 2016, the charity Women in Sport, are running a Women in Sport week, to bring people together who have an involvement in a variety of different activities, in order to increase the profile of female participants across the UK.
During this week, TeamKinetic are focusing on women who volunteer within organisations and are promoting both the involvement and strong importance of female volunteers.
“Women in Sport draws on its unique insight to champion the right of every woman and girl in the UK to take part in, and benefit from, sport: from the field of play to the boardroom, from early years and throughout her life” (Women in Sport, 2016).
With a variety of our clients including: NGBs, CSPs and Local Authorities, we have access to a wide network of women who are currently involved within volunteering. Therefore, ensuring that the events are able to take place by signing up through TeamKinetic’s volunteer management system, making sure that there are a range of different opportunities available for all volunteers.
Furthermore, TeamKinetic demonstrates that women become involved for the right reasons. Alongside, how to reach out to both new and existing female volunteers, who are participating within sports and activity.
Providing a welcoming environment and full support and guidance for the organisations volunteers.
Creating aspirations and goals.
Involve a variety of volunteers to enable varied and exciting opportunities.
Therefore, throughout Women in Sport week, by having an effective volunteer management system in place for your organisation, such as TeamKinetic, encourages you to begin recruiting, managing and organising participants becoming involved in sport and provides more opportunities for women to sign up and start volunteering now. #WSW16
‘TeamKinetic has ensured that the Homeless World Cup could take place through recruiting and gaining volunteers’
Mariana, Marketing Executive, Homeless World Cup
Sporting events across the country would struggle to run efficiently without volunteers. Think about the huge success of the London 2012 Games Makers and their counterparts in Rio. These volunteers were all essential to making the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games successful and in Rio this year, the volunteers at the Olympic Games have once again demonstrated how invaluable they are.
So you won’t be surprised when I tell you that volunteers play a key role in making sure the Homeless World Cup takes place. However, it’s all very well and good getting volunteers to help manage an event but you also need to be able to accurately manage their time and activities. During the Homeless World Cup, we were able to use AccessKinetic, an accreditation system, and VolunteerKinetic, a volunteer management system to recruit and manage our volunteers who participated. These systems are a part of TeamKinetic which is a suite of applications fostering and growing communities that revolve around volunteering.
The Homeless World Cup took place in Glasgow, during July 2016, at George Square. The venue included, three purpose built pitches with seating, which was the main venue for 64 teams, from 51 different countries. The participants included homeless people from all over the globe, who came together to play a sport that they are passionate about, in order to represent their country.
Throughout the event we identified five reasons why TeamKinetic’s service is vital for organisations to manage their volunteers and help others to become active in sport.
1.Involvement
Volunteer involvement was vital for the running, delivery and management of the Homeless World Cup. The various roles taken on by the volunteers meant they had to undertake different responsibilities. These responsibilities helped the players and spectators, promoted the event and encouraged people to play and get involved in sport.
2. Importance
It was vital that the volunteers enjoyed their roles and that the overall event was a success. Throughout the Homeless World Cup, we had an average of 350 volunteers a day. They all had varying roles with different responsibilities – but it was important that they all helped make the atmosphere for both players and spectators phenomenal. Being able to provide the volunteers with the support they needed to carry out their roles meant the event was able to demonstrate the importance of playing sport and using it to bring people together.
3. Spectators
The Homeless World Cup in Glasgow attracted 80,000 spectators. Their attendance was vital to the success of the event but they also played an important role in making sure both players and volunteers felt valued. By experiencing such a positive, and potentially life changing event for the players, volunteers and spectators were able to see first hand the benefits of an active lifestyle. This is excellent news as research shows that attending sporting events is sometimes enough to encourage people to get involved in sport themselves.
‘Five key core motivations for sports event attendees includes: socialisation, performance, excitement, extreme and diversion. Alongside, focusing on the whole experience to grow and promote participation’ (Greenwell et al, 2014)
4. Participation
Volunteers were able to get involved, participate and reflect on the Homeless World Cup via social media. This is because of an integrated function within the TeamKinetic system. It also helped to engage with players attending the event, as they were selected through a variety of trials and training sessions within their home countries. The VolunteerKinetic system and the accredited AccessKinetic badges, meant that all volunteers gained a sense of achievement and responsibility throughout the event.
5. Post Event
There were many vital aspects for the Homeless World Cup to consider after the event. Including monitoring the number of homeless people who participated in the event and continue to play sport to improve their health and lifestyle. At the same time, it also helped engagement with volunteers through the TeamKinetic system so that we were able to keep them involved in future events.
The Homeless World Cup, and other positive sporting events really help to encourage players, spectators and volunteers to #TryYourKitOn and get active.
The ability for universities to prepare students with the skills and experience required by businesses is critical in today’s competitive economy.
“These system limitations caused us to hold back on promoting the system, which reduced our visibility on and off campus”
