ROB MAWHOOD - VOLUNTEER COORDINATOR - posted 12 November 2010

The contribution of the Cycling Award for Young Volunteers (CAYV) graduates from Red Rose Olympic and Sheffield Stars CSC has been highlighted at the Go-Ride Conferences. A vital part of the young volunteers programme is the support offered by clubs to help young volunteers gain the skills and experience that enables young people to make a valuable contribution to the activities of their club. That support is one of the key responsibilities of a Go-Ride club’s volunteer coordinator and Rob Mawhood of Sheffield Stars shares his experiences fulfilling this role.

“I decided to take up the role of volunteer coordinator in my club when British Cycling invited us to get involved with the CAYV programme. I already fulfil the role of coach and at first I felt a little apprehensive about taking up another role because I didn’t want to neglect the needs of the young volunteers, or pay less attention to preparing for my coaching sessions. However, it has been a big help because the club, participants and myself have benefited hugely from the involvement of young volunteers.

After British Cycling delivered the CAYV workshop, four attendees volunteered with the club straight away, while the others decided to help at their local Go-Ride school club. It was tricky at first finding tasks for the young volunteers to do because they all had different interests but by varying the roles they undertook they all ended up making a contribution in all three of the courses volunteering options of coaching, running a club and officiating. 

The biggest contributions have been made to the coaching sessions and events because one young volunteer has become an assistant coach every Saturday and the others fit in volunteering around their riding by setting up and packing away the mid week training session equipment and officiating at all the inter school competitions.

The volunteer coordinator role didn’t impact on my other duties as a volunteer because I have involved other people in the club which has broadened the young volunteers’ horizons. For example, the funding coordinator successfully involved the young volunteers in a funding application, the chairman has involved the young volunteers in committee meetings relevant to their interests and I stayed in touch with British Cycling’s Go-Ride team which led to the young volunteers assisting with the Go-Ride Conferences.

The club’s activities continue to grow and there is always plenty for me to offer the young volunteers, but what they do next is ultimately their choice. All four have chosen to do the Level 1 Certificate in Coaching Cycling when they reach 16 and one has also volunteered to attend a bike maintenance course. Now that the young volunteers are much more experienced my responsibility will be to ensure that they know about further training available and gradually delegate more appropriate tasks such as taking more of a leading role at our upcoming Go-Ride Racing events. Thanks to the support of other volunteers in the club we will definitely be signing up to support another CAYV course next year.”

LIFE AS A YOUNG VOLUNTEER by James Unwin

In the time I have been volunteering I have done many things which I would not have been able to do otherwise, including meeting Olympic and World Championship medallist Craig MacLean at the Go-Ride conference in Leeds and securing some external funding for my club as well as money for other things.

As a young volunteer I still ride in training sessions, but I go to training sessions early to help the coaches set up and do the safety checks. I also help by ensuring the younger riders are wearing the appropriate clothing, helmets, gloves, and making sure the bikes are the correct size for them. I have worked as a pit marshal and a starting marshal and referee's assistant. I have also helped at various Try Cycling sessions at local fairs. The fairs are good because you get to see how the general public feel about cycling and it gets people into the sport who may have never heard or seen Go-Ride activities before.

Since helping at the coaching sessions I have progressed to helping to run Saturday Go-Ride sessions to get more people into the sport of cycling. During the sessions I started to help the coaches with warm up exercises and then moved on to help the coaches with the whole session. I now want to do a Level One Certificate in Coaching Cycling qualification later in the year. I have found that the Go-Ride programme has helped to raise the profile of cycling as a sport for everyone. Many of the people I have worked with would not have even thought of cycling as a sport to get involved in if it wasn't for the Go-Ride programme. The programme has also got me trying other forms of cycling that I wouldn't have tried otherwise such as BMX and Cycle Speedway.

Even though I have completed my bronze, silver and gold levels of the Cycling Award for Young Volunteers programme I still spend a lot of my time helping the club in whatever way I can because I now know the work that goes into running a club. I realise that my help goes a long way and is valued by the club and the other riders.

The young volunteer course has helped me develop my self confidence and organisational skills. More importantly I have enjoyed the young volunteers programme and I feel that I have done things within the club that I wouldn't have done otherwise.