The European Observatoire for Sport Employment (EOSE), is leading a new research project seeking to understand the levels of volunteering that exist in sport across Europe and how we bring them back post-Covid. And we would like your help.
EOSE is a partner of the OSS and the new three year EU-funded project, entitled V4V (www.v4v-sport.eu), has developed a European Skills Survey on Sport Volunteering which is now live until the end of June. The aim is to find out more about how the sector recruits, trains and manages their volunteers, but we also want to find out more about the skills needs of volunteers in the many roles they play, the challenges sport organisations face in regard to volunteering and possible solutions.
The Covid pandemic has had a major impact on volunteering in sport, with concerns for the long-term future of community sport and physical activity, but there was evidence pre-Covid that sport volunteering was in decline across Europe.
As European sport moves into pandemic recovery, there is a real need to find practical solutions to rebuild the volunteer workforce by attracting more people with the right attitudes, motivations and skillsets, and retaining them through good quality volunteer training and management. This is the main aim of the V4V project, an Erasmus+ sport project led by the European Observatoire of Sport and Employment (EOSE) with the active support of 12 partners (national and international sport federations, a government body, two universities, two research centres and two European networks).
To identify and develop innovative solutions, the project first needs to find out more about sport volunteering and the main challenges organisations face, and to hear about good practices and possible solutions. The survey is part of that, providing a unique pan-European attempt to reach out to the broadest range of sport organisations of all shapes and sizes. EOSE is seeking the views of all sport stakeholders and not only those engaging volunteers, from national sport bodies to community clubs, local authorities and leisure trusts to social enterprises and community sport providers. The survey seeks to provide strong insight across Europe and help us to benchmark Scotland’s volunteering network in sport against other nations.
The survey is available to complete here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/V4V_Sport_Volunteering_Survey_2022.
Thought Piece from Charlie Raeburn for Reform Scotland