Young Ambassador Wales Steering Group Meeting6

Sport Wales National Centre, 19th February2013

Present: Richard Dando (SportWales),Emma Roberts (SportWales),Ian Cawley (YST), Ainsley Richards (Chair, Swansea), Elin Owen (Gwynedd),Emyr Jones (Carmarthen), Cameron Wells (RCT), Beth Nesham (RCT), Dylan Gallanders (Wrexham) Charlotte Webb (Anglesey), Ellen Deir (Denbighshire), Bethan Littlewood (Bridgend), Stacey Webber (Carmarthenshire), Jordan Thomas (Anglesey), Jamie Hughes (Anglesey)

Apologies: Jamie Turley (Denbighshire),Carwen Richards (Ceredigion), Lynn Seehasuth (Cardiff), Natalie Davies (Bridgend),James Denton (Denbighshire), Georgina Davies (Cardiff),Yasmine Davies (Swansea), George Sariak (Monmouthshire), Vikki Courtman (Wrexham), Holly Morris (Cardiff), Natalie Davies (Bridgend)

Actions from the Meeting:

Glasgow 2014–Claire Knowlesto keep Emma Robertsupdated with information about opportunities for YAs to get involved i.e. Sport Your Trainers Day (11th March), 500 days to go, Kit fitting for the team in December, and the Queens Baton Relay (24th-31st May 2014). Emma Robertsto pass on information to YAs to keep them informed.

YAs to give any feedback to Claire about ideas for any of the events related to Glasgow, and anything they would like to change/ keep the same from London 2012 Torch Relay.

Sport Wales Stakeholder Conference– Date tbc. (Possibly 22nd May?) Richard Dando and Emma Robertsto feed back any information to YA Steering group. Once date is confirmed, can YAs please state their availability, so that we can start with the planning?

Lead your Generation– YAs to inform their 5x60 officers/teachers/YAs about Lead your Generation and what it is all about. Sport Wales and YSTto put a plan together to inform/support LA’s about ‘Lead Your Generation’. YAs to come up with Legacy Statements for their local areas.Claire Knowles – Sport Wales Comms Dept.can support this in any way.

School Sport Survey– Emma Robertsneeds to share the SSS video clip with the Steering group via e-mail. Rebecca Mattingley to share any resources such as newsletters with Emma Roberts, so that they can be shared with YAs.

YAs to influence teachers and head teachers that the SSS is important, so that more schools show an interest and fill them in. YAs to contact Emma Robertsabout schools that have good community links, and if they have any interest in writing a short blog on SSS ASAP.

YA Celebration event– Ian Cawleyto send over generic information about the event to pass on to successful YAs.

Emma Robertsto get in touch with LAs who had successful applicants to see if they can now attend.

Social Media– YAs to continually promote the movement via Facebook and Twitter so that the word spreads about the good work they are doing.

Newsletter – Emma to send a copy of the blog rota to all steering group members, and YAs have agreed to write a blog before the deadline they have agreed to.

Review of Steering group members– Emma to distribute the minutes to who needs them, Ainsley to post the minutes on the Facebook page, and YAs to then share them with anyone in their LA that may benefit from them.

Need to come up with Steering group criteria. Link up Cardiff Uni YAs with Cardiff LA.

Millennium Volunteers Sport – Attached is the link to the MV website. Please share with other YAs to encourage more to sign up:

URDD- YAs to send over a list of Welsh speaking schools in their Local Authorities to Emma.

National School Sport Week- YAs to continue promoting this in their schools, and encourage more to sign up!

Need to target the correct person in the school who can help get the school involved i.e. PE Teachers, 5x60 officers etc.

YAs can keep an eye on which schools in their areas by clicking on the link:

Wales Password: bj5dg3fj

Community Chest Panel-

Richard Dandoto find out about getting a YA to sit on a Community Chest Panel in each Local Authority.

Minutes from the Meeting:

Claire Knowles

  • Claire Knowles, Events Officer – Sport Wales informed the YAs about the upcoming events related to Glasgow 2014. Claire agreed to keep all YAs up to date with the events and opportunities for the YAs. Feedback from the YAs was that they are very keen to get involved with everything, and they fed some ideas back to Claire.
  • Sport Wales Conference

Date is yet to be confirmed. The theme for the conference is Leadership and High Performance, so YAs will have a big part to play. Launch Lead your Generation, and YAs will have the opportunity to run a workshop, to demonstrate the high impact from them. Exams may be an issue with the date, but we can look into asking some of the younger YAs or plan a virtual link?

  • YA National Conference

The group discussed what would be the best option for a conference this year. It was agreed that they would like a Gold Conference once again, but the new Gold’s should value their experience, and new YAs should not just be thrown in at the deep end and sent to the conference without knowing what it is about.

  • It was mentioned that authorities should learn from each other and share best practice.

Ian Cawley

  • Ian Cawley, YST YA Britain - introduced the group to the new focus, Lead your generation. This is a way for young people to be at the centre of creating a legacy from London 2012, by developing and delivering this. All information will be featured on the Lead your generation site:
  • YAs agreed to work on creating legacy action plans within their local communities, and will be advocates on the ground for the legacy.
  • Need to identify ways to relate this to Wales Specifically, ideas: Commonwealth 2014, 5x60 officers, Local Authorities etc. suggestions were that this could be used as a transition from London to Glasgow 2014.

Rebecca Mattingley

  • Rebecca Mattingley, Research Dept. Sport Wales – introduced School Sport Survey to the group and received feedback from the YAs who tested it out. YAs agreed to help with promoting the survey, and are willing to do training to go into schools and help others to complete the survey.
  • YAs suggested new names for the survey, and agreedonYour Sport Your Voice.

YA Celebration Event, Wembley Stadium, 6th March 2013.

  • YAs selected 5-6 nominees to attend the event, by reviewing each anonymous nomination form.
  • The group all agreed on the worthy winners.

Use of Social-Media

  • Facebook – it was discussed whether there was a need for two Facebook pages for YAs, and also should Steve be contacted as he is the only admin for the closed group which should be changed.
  • Twitter – YAs agree that Twitter is powerful in raising awareness of YAs, and have all agreed to tweet about what they do to boost it further.

Review of Steering Group members

  • Elin Owen suggested to make the opportunity more appealing, YAs should be invited to events rather than be told to attend an event on a specific date.
  • Discussions were raised as to whether there should be a specific criteria for the steering group, and should the group be changed after a cycle of a certain period. YAs should be interviewed so that the SG is made up of only the best and most committed YAs.

Opportunities for YAs

  • MV Sport -Potentially 40,000 volunteer hours could come from YAs alone if they signed up to MV50. This could potentially be a good impact statement for Lead your Generation.
  • URDD -Emma mentioned that he Urdd are looking to recruit welsh speaking AdiStars to help with sport coaching with the Urdd etc. We now need to identify the Welsh speaking schools in Wales so that they can be approached.
  • National School Sport Week- YAs encouraged to sign up their schools, and to pass on the e-mails to YAs and influential Sports People in their schools who may make it happen.
  • Community Chest Panel – Dylan Gallanders informed the group about his experience of sitting on the panel in Wrexham, and the benefit of having a young person’s voice on the panel.

RCT have a system where YAs take turns to sit on the Panel in their LA.

YAs expressed an interest in taking part in panel meetings, if the panels are made aware of the benefit of having a young person’s voice involved.

Work plan.

  • YAs constructed a work plan of what they have agreed to do following the meeting. These include:
  • Lead your Generation – Legacy Statements
  • Raise awareness of: Sport your trainers day, NSSW, School Sport Survey
  • Agree to reply to e-mails!
  • Commit to writing a blog for the newsletter.
  • Sport Wales Conference – help in any way they can.
  • Community chest panel – find out if YA’s can sit on this in their local authority.