British Blind Sport

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British Blind Sport

Buddy and Coach Mentoring Programme

The aim is to achieve an increase in the number of people available to help those with visual impairments and consequently increase participation in sporting activities.

Buddy scheme

Provide support to enable young VI people to feel comfortable participating in a range of sporting and leisure activities in both impairment specific and mainstream settings
Provide training to enable people to offer support as a buddy

Recruitment of buddies

A number of different routes will be used:

Family members or existing friends
Individuals recruited especially for the role from within the same school or club
Individuals recruited especially for the role from an external source e.g. other schools, colleges and clubs, Community Sports Leaders Award students and other similar schemes looking for opportunities to complete their voluntary hours.
Young coaches who would like to develop their skills to work with VI people. This would be very much a two way process with the VI young person providing them with first hand knowledge and the coach providing skilled one to one support

All authorised buddies will be required to complete an application form, be interviewed and complete a CRB check before being matched with a young person. Ideally a pool of buddies will be established so that when someone requires help trained people are readily available.

Training of buddies

All buddies will undertake training for the role. This will include

The aim of the project and what they can expect from volunteering
Why become a buddy?
Roles, responsibilities and skills required
VI awareness training
The support available to them
Meeting their potential partner

Training of VI young people

There also needs to be training for the VI young people who may be helped by buddies. This will include

The aim of the project
Expectations and role of the buddy
Benefits of having a buddy

Coach Mentoring scheme VISIT (VI Sport Inclusive Training)

Provide training and support to enable local sports coaches to feel comfortable in coaching VI young people and fully including them in a range of sporting and leisure activities in both impairment specific and mainstream settings

Recruitment of mentors

Mentors will be identified from:

Coaches already working within BBS sports
Experienced coaches and teachers already working with VI people in other settings

There will be a need for all authorised coaches to complete an application form, be interviewed and complete a CRB check.

Training of mentors

All mentors will undertake training for the role. This will include

The aim of the project and what they can expect from volunteering
Roles, responsibilities and skills required
The support available to them

Training mentee coaches

The coaches who will be mentored need to understand

The aim of the project
What support they can expect
What to do if they are experiencing problems

Ryan Armes

Regional Development Officer (Young People)

Email: ryan@britishblindsport.org.uk

Tel: 01487 843344 or 07825506352