Calling young visually impaired people for new project
British Blind Sport look to tackle the disability employment gap with bespoke young people’s sports volunteering programme. Applications now open to 11-18 year olds with a visual impairment.
National Disability Sports Organisation, British Blind Sport, is delighted to announce a new project aimed to develop young (11-18) visually impaired people through a volunteering, mentoring and leadership programme over the course of three years.
The ‘See my Voice’ project has been successfully awarded over £120,000 from Sport England and the #iwill fund and will link over 100 Young Leaders into sports volunteering roles that will develop their life skills, and enable them to share their opinions and experiences to shape the sporting landscape for visually impaired people.
The See My Voice project will support Young Leaders to develop life skills that will inevitably increase their confidence and enhance their employability prospects as well as providing an opportunity to develop meet new friends and improve lives. Each Young Leader will complete a leadership qualification and be provided with one to one mentoring sessions with business leaders. After completing 50 hours of volunteering over a one year term participants will receive a certificate of their achievement. British Blind Sport will support the Young Leaders to find high quality volunteering experiences.
Tiri Hughes, British Blind Sport member and British Gymnastics young ambassador, said:
“This project is a great opportunity for young people with a visual impairment to grow and for sporting organisations to realise that recruiting volunteers with a disability is a great opportunity. Since volunteering to become an ambassador my confidence has grown so much and I really enjoy it. I would recommend anyone thinking of applying to just go for it! That’s the approach I took and I’ve reaped the rewards.”
Logan Gray, National Partnerships Manager for British Blind Sport said:
“British Blind Sport is really excited about the potential of this project. We recognise that too often decisions are made in consultation with the adults in young people’s lives and that we never hear what the young person wants. We want to change that. By communicating with the young people in our community directly and connecting them into local sporting roles that meet their wants and motivations, we hope to create a precedent for our projects, and that of our partners, going forward. We know how much visually impaired volunteers have to offer sporting organisations and we are confident that See My Voice will demonstrate exactly that and also have a very positive impact on our Young Leader’s lives now and in future.”
To find out more detail of the See My Voice project download the information leaflet
Apply here to become a British Blind Sport Young Leader.
Applications will close on 29th January 2018.
Should you have any questions, please contact Young Leaders Officer, Lijana Kaziow on 01926 424 247 between 9am and 5.30pm.
