Welcome to the Cumbria Sport Partnership Spring 2009 e-zine!

Spring is here and at last we are seeing slight improvements in overall weather conditions. Sports participants can face many barriers when it comes to accessing opportunities, but the weather is something we can do very little about. Unless you are a sports extremist and the weather conditions actually enhance your experience, the majority of participants in cycling, running and walking activities must be grateful for improving weather conditions... however small!!

April will see the launch of Sport England’s Investment Strategy with the opening of the new grants application process, further details can be found at www.sportengland.org. What is great news for a county like Cumbria is the recent announcement of the first of a number of Themed Rounds within a £10m funding pot. The first of these is for Sporting Opportunities for Rural Communities. So if you have a project in your area and it meets the rural criteria set by Sport England I would urge you to click onto Sport England’s website and find out more. This is one of those rare funding opportunities devoted to rural communities and there will only be a 3 month window from April for outline funding applications... so don’t miss this fantastic opportunity.

In January the Cumbria Sport Team won the ‘Team of the Year’ award in Cumbria County Council’s Excellence Awards, however the team also won an award in the ‘Joint Partnership / Together We Can’ category. We were really pleased to have won the Team of the Year award but equally pleased to have been recognised for the work we do on behalf of, and with all of our partners in Cumbria Sport. My view of the partnership is that everyone who works on behalf of the Cumbrian community to improve the opportunities to take part in sport and physical activity is a part of the Cumbria Sport Partnership. Whether you work fairly closely with the team on joint programmes or you are a club or an individual that receives the e-zine or uses our website, hopefully you are better informed to help you deliver you own objectives in sport.

So the second award would not have been possible without all of you out there working away in sport and in partnership with Cumbria Sport, so thank you for all the great work you do for your communities... this is as much your award as it ours!!

Best Wishes

Eddie Edge - Partnership Director
Cumbria Sport Partnership

SPORTING INFRASTRUCTURE UPDATE

Sports Workforce Education Programme
The Cumbria Sport Workforce Education Programme compiled in association with our Local Authority and NGB partners has now been published. It offers a variety of courses ensuring that Sports Professionals can access training across the County throughout the year. The programme will be continually updated with new courses, the most up to date version will be held on the website, to download a copy please click here. Please contact Aileen Cubbon (Development Officer - Sporting Infrastructure) on 01228 221262 or email aileen.cubbon@cumbriacc.gov.uk if you have any comments on the further development of the education programme, or if there are any particular courses you would like delivered in Cumbria.

Club Database
Cumbria Sport in partnership with the Local Authority Sport Development Teams is in the process of creating a countywide database of clubs. Eventually this will supply the information for a ‘find a club’ facility on the website which will use Google mapping to show the location of clubs in every local area. Over 800 clubs have been written to already asking them to confirm their details and give permission for them to be used on the website. Every club who has returned their details has been sent a 512mb USB Pen Drive pre-loaded with information about where to get help and support with development in Cumbria. Any clubs who have still to return details can download a blank template from the website by clicking here.

CUMBRIA SPORT DOUBLE WIN AT CUMBRIA COUNTY COUNCIL’S EXCELLENCE AWARDS

The Cumbria Sport Partnership had a highly successful evening at Cumbria County Council’s Excellence Awards Dinner in January this year. The team had been shortlisted for two awards; Joint Partnership Working and Team of the Year, and was invited to attend a glittering black tie event at Carlisle Race Course. Photographers snapped our arrival on the red carpet and following the champagne reception we were seated for dinner. The first award to be announced was Joint Partnership Working for which we won Bronze, then later we went on to win the Gold Team of the Year. After more photographs and a video interview the evening rounded off with a disco and live band, a great finish to a winning evening for the team.

SPORT ENGLAND CONFERENCE - BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS THAT DELIVER

Bruce Lawson, Sporting Infrastructure Manager for Cumbria Sport Partnership played a starring role at the National Sport England Conference on 10th March. In front of all the County Sport Partnership Directors, National Governing Bodies of Sport Chief Executives and representatives from the Youth Sport Trust, Sport England, Government and the HE Sector, Bruce delivered a speech outlining how successful Sport Unlimited has been in Cumbria. To see Bruce's Speech as well as the other keynote speakers from the day, which include Jenny Price, Andy Burnham and Mike Diaper, please click here.

CARLISLE CLUB AND VOLUNTEER EVENING

Cumbria Sport Partnership, Carlisle City Council and Carlisle School Sport Partnership are holding a Club and Volunteer Evening 6pm – 8pm on Tuesday 21st April at the Civic Centre Carlisle. Local sports clubs who have achieved Clubmark or are working towards will be invited along to recruit volunteers. Sixth Form, HE and FE student as well as members of the general public who are interested in volunteering in sport will be invited along to find out what is involved and ‘match up’ with the clubs present. Keep an eye on the website for more information nearer the time www.cumbriasport.com

NEW RUGBY LEAGUE VOLUNTEER DEVELOPMENT OFFICER

Claire Hall has been appointed the new Rugby League Development Officer for Cumbria. Claire’s post is part of a national vinspired programme aimed at recruiting 16 – 25 year olds into volunteering in Rugby League Clubs. Claire has already started visiting Further Education Colleges across the county and making contact with other sport development professionals. Claire is based at Allerdale House in Workington and you can contact her at Claire.hall@rfl.uk.com If you would like to know more about vinspired click here.

NEW CLUBMARK STATUS IN RUGBY LEAGUE

The Rugby Football League is to introduce a further enhanced level of accreditation alongside the generic Clubmark from the 1st April 2009. ‘Clubmark Gold’ has been designed to enable clubs to grow and enhance their provision and be recognised by the RFL as a focus club, this would bring enhanced benefits that would help the club to grow and sustain all activities and be supported by the RFL as the Governing body of Rugby League.

The original Clubmark Status will be known as Level 1 and the new Clubmark Gold Status will be know as Level 2. The RFL will be working now with existing Clubmark clubs to move them on the new accreditation levels with the aspiration to eventually have all rugby league clubs attaining the Clubmark Gold Status. More information will be available from the RFL Community website.

CUMBRIA HOST REPRESENTATIVE WOMENS AND GIRLS RUGBY UNION FOR THE FIRST TIME

Sunday 22nd February saw the first regional representative girl’s rugby ever played in Cumbria, and there is more to follow. The same fixture North East Versus North West in the women’s competition will be hosted at Penrith RUFC in March. The venue has been selected by the RFUW this season, in its quest to use neutral grounds for the competition for the first time. Click here to read more.

SPORT ENGLAND ANNOUNCE FUNDING THEMED ROUND FOR RURAL COMMUNITIES

Sport England today unveiled a £10 million investment fund that will create sporting opportunities for people in rural areas. The first in a series of themed funding rounds, it will open for business on 1 April 2009.

Themed rounds will enable Sport England to tackle specific challenges and opportunities that exist in grassroots sport as well as helping to ensure that investment is effectively distributed across the country and across different communities.

People in rural communities are the focus of the first round because they face particular barriers to participating in sport, such as reduced choice in the sports available to them and transportation issues getting to and from facilities. Sport England’s Active People Survey 2 shows that two thirds of the local authorities with the lowest sports participation rates are in rural areas. To read more click here.

HANDS UP FOR SPORTS VOLUNTEERING CONFERENCE 2009

This year’s Sports Volunteering North West conference will be held on Tuesday 28th April at Preston Grasshoppers Rugby Football Club. Volunteer managers, coordinators and sports’ volunteers from across the North West region will meet to debate the role of volunteers in the current sporting landscape and how these dedicated people can be supported. 

Delegates will receive, first hand, the latest thinking on sports volunteering from a national and regional context and have the opportunity to learn from others and get new ideas to help you on a daily basis - not forgetting the chance to meet up with new and existing colleagues and catch up with progress. This dedicated conference will provide key updates on areas within volunteering and high quality workshops.

The Cumbria Sport Partnership has 10 free places available on a first come first serve basis, if you are interested in attending please e-mail becky.underwood@cumbriacc.gov.uk

To find out more about the conference including booking details please click here

RUNNING SPORTS NEWSLETTER

The latest edition of the Running Sports Newsletter is now available, aimed at sports clubs and volunteers it is full of useful information.

To view the online version please click here

CHANGE 4 LIFE PROMOTING ACTIVITY TOOLKIT

The Change 4 Life campaign has been rolling out across the Country over the last few weeks with TV adverts, bus stop billboards and radio spots popping up regularly over the last few months. The aim of Change 4 Life is to get more people active and to help local sports clubs and organisations encourage more people to participate, they have produced a Promoting Activity Toolkit. To find out more and to download the toolkit, please click here.

JOB VACANCIES

Current vacancies being advertised on the Cumbria Sport Partnership include:

• Marketing and Communication Officer, The Cumbria Sport Partnership
• Sport Development Officer, Copeland Borough Council
• Area Development Officer, Run in England
• Development Manager NW (Maternity Cover) The Youth Sport Trust

Please click here to find out more and visit the Job Opportunities page.

CUMBRIA SPORT PARTNERS CONTACT DETAILS

You can view contact details for Cumbria Sport Partners, including Sport Development Officers, FESCOs, and Partnership Development Managers here. If your contact details are not there or have changed, please email jackie.hayhow@cumbriacc.gov.uk