“Adult Coaching Helpers & Level 1 Coaching Award”
‘Project in a Box’
Thinking ofrunning a project like “Adult Coaching Helpers & Level 1 Coaching Award”? The following information and resources should help…
We engage 20 adults in community learning delivered through sport, (See posters and leaflets below) providing the opportunity to engage in a community facility, and develop new skills in coaching, self-confidence and communication. Our project resulted in adults from the Newcastle area being involved in supporting and engaging with children and young people through the development of gymnastics coaching skills. We provided access to learning through sport, gaining recognised sports qualifications and providing professional careers information, advice and guidance to help adults to take informed decisions about their next steps in work and life.
“Adult Coaching Helpers & Level 1 Coaching Award” was led by the City of Newcastle Gymnastics Academy providing British Gymnastics tutors and mentor coaches in partnership with; the National Careers Service, who provided group and one-to-one personal careers information, advice and guidance to participants,Tyne & Wear Sport who would deliver theFirst Aid Course and Safeguarding and Protecting Children Course.
To find our adult learners we displayed our promotional material in our Gymnastics Centre who have over 1000 children visit every week and Benfield High School, from this promotion we received over 30 applications for our project.
Project in a Box - Poster
Project in a Box - Leaflet
Learners
Before starting our project we met with our 20 Adults, we explained about our project and what we hope they would achieve from our project. They allcomplete our Learner Impact Monitoring Formand explained they would be asked to complete the same form again at the end of our project. The differences on the 2 forms would give us information to help us decide whether or not our project was successful in some areas.
We also gave our learners a Learners Agreement guide this informed them of what they could expect from CNGA and what we would hope from them as learners.
Project in a Box - Learner Impact Monitoring Form
Project in a Box - Learners Agreement Guide
Aims
Our specific aims were:
- Improve access to learning through sport
- Develop adults’ coaching and communication skills
- Support adults in identifying their next steps in work and life.
- Provide sustainable opportunities for adults to engage in coaching beyond the project end date
Our resulting Theory of Change map details a wide range of expected outcomes we hadn’t expected at the start of the project. Our Evaluation Report (pdf) demonstrates our achievements against many of these outcomes.
Clink hereto see the time scale we delivered our project
Resources
Our project was resourced with a £38,000 grant from the Community Learning Innovation Fund. Key spending areas included tuition/course fees, learning venues, project management, and overheads.
Funding expenditure.
Learning
For our project we used our partners to deliver the course learning and very flexible mentor coaches who encourage the learners to become physically active, more confident in themselves and becoming volunteers, the mentor coaches also help the learners improve communication skills and have the feel good factor about themselves.
For the information on how to organise an Adult Coaching Helpers Course & Level 1 Coaching course use this link to British Gymnastics.
To arrange a sporting First Aid course and Safeguarding and Protecting Children course use this link to North Ease Course Finder
Volunteer agreements used for this project.
CNGA Volunteer Policy.doc
CNGA Volunteer (Coach) Role Description.doc
CNGA Volunteer Handbook.doc
We also used the following Risk assessment form with our learners.
CNGA Risk Assessment - Volunteers.doc
Here are some of the examples of the work produced by our learners.
Session Plan - Sue.pdf Session Plan - Sue page 2.pdf Session Plan - Sue page 3.pdf
Floor Session - Vicky.pdfVault Session - Kerry.pdf Conditioning sht - Kyle.pdf
Publicity
We did send the following press release to our local papers on receiving the funding, we also put it on our CNGA web site and sent it to our Regional newsletter.
CLIF Press release.docx
Evaluation
Growing London was evaluated using a Theory of Change model for understanding developments, based on quantitative and qualitative evidence. Click here for the evaluation report (pdf).
Top Tips for Future Delivery
1) Allow plenty of time for planning, promotion and recruitment of learners
2) Employa project coordinator whofocuses exclusively on the project.
3) Have a flexible approach for each course around if possible the individual and ensure there is plenty of mentor support.
4) When signing people up onto the course get them to sign a contract/statement which shows their commitment to the course and motivation to change.
5) Have support to help though Adults who are not confident with written preparation for each session.
6) Fully utilise social networking sites to promote your project and also to stay in touch with your learners regularly.
7) Have a support mechanism in place, in this project it was mentor coaches and encourage them to use this from the beginning of your project.
8) Over-subscribe to the courses to allow for a small percentage to drop out – very important
9) Try to be flexible so learners can catch up on any learning missed for one reason or another.
10) Provide a positive response to a learner needs, it is crucial to take a flexible learning approach, remember everyone learns at different speeds.
For evidence and further discussion, read our evaluation report (pdf).
Case Study
Case Study July 2013
Key contacts
Project Manager -Jill Tan
City of Newcastle Gymnastics AcademyDevelopment Officer
Office:0191 265 6091 ext.406
Karen Chapman
City of Newcastle Gymnastics Academy Chief Executive