A Scottish Perspective Sport for Change A Scottish Perspective Linda Macdonald Senior Development Officer The Robertson Trust Dr Kath Edgar Director Substance

Largest independent funder in Scotland £18.2m last year in 742 awards Improve the quality of live and realise the potential for people and communities in Scotland In 1961 the three Robertson sisters, Elspeth, Agnes and Ethel, donated their shares in the family business developed by their grandfather and father to The Robertson Trust for charitable purposes. This decision to hold the now global company of Edrington in Trust has seen over £150m invested back into charitable organisations, of all sizes, across Scotland.

Policy context in Scotland Focus on participation and performance Wider impact has often been assumed to be an automatic bi-product of participation Sport sits within a portfolio that includes Health and Wellbeing Renewed focus on impact and addressing inequalities therobertsontrust.org.uk

Active Scotland: Outcomes Framework therobertsontrust.org.uk

Sport for Change: Our experience Where sport is intentionally used as a tool to deliver wider social impact beyond participation in sport therobertsontrust.org.uk

Sport for Change: Our experience Community sport/ grassroot sports/ sports development/sport for change: same thing? Assumed benefits of sport Lack of evidence to back this up Lack of clarity and leadership around sport for change as an approach Resources directed at the development of physical assets and sports coaching Challenges for organisations seeking to adopt a “beyond sport” approach: governance, skills, capacity Challenges of engaging and retaining beyond “the usual suspects” therobertsontrust.org.uk

Sport for Change: Approach Strategic support and development Supporting the sustainability of delivery agencies Working with Young people therobertsontrust.org.uk

What are we learning from YWiS What are we learning from YWiS? Approaches that work on the ground and why? Relationship Building Facilitating Youth Leadership Learning, Planning and Delivering: Managing Differing Priorities

Motivations for Learning Upskilling the YWiS Trainee, the majority of which are young people with a sports background or interest in sport, to have the youth work skills required to work with hard to reach young people All Trainees were attracted to the initiative in order to learn new skills and deliver activities to more hard to reach young people and relay learning into the sports organisations

Learning Days & Networking

Relationship Building: What Works The youth work approach embedded through learning was key to allowing the sports organisations reach more hard to reach young people and develop relationships with young people Shift away from traditional sports provision All Trainees and Managers on the YWiS initiative believe the programme has helped the organisation build positive relationships with young people in the community

Relationship Building: What Works How? Through providing free, accessible open access sessions with a focus upon sport plus social skills Adopt an informal but effective approach Listen to young people’s needs and responding to their feedback [e.g. providing food] “The best thing is probably the workers. Everyone gets along, it is always a laugh. You can talk to them as well.” [Young Person. Spartans]

Relationship Building: What Works Utilise volunteers to run provision and up skill the community Be constant and continuous with delivery Engage with the wider community and school Delivering the sessions at a time that suits the young people [late night weekend session] Be flexible to the needs of the young people

Facilitating Youth Leadership: What Works Dual youth leadership pathways are made available [YWiS Trainee and other young people in the community are developed and upskilled] It works when the Trainee is seen as a role model to the participants and they alongside other young people are designing and leading on youth delivery

Facilitating Youth Leadership: What Is Required? Continual education routes available (eg ability to progress onto degree course) Improve networking skills with partners Participate in voluntary community activity Participate in other formal training Gain skills in engaging with hard to reach young people Works when the organisation trusts the approach and the abilities of the young people Autonomy and authority to lead is essential

Facilitating Youth Leadership Across the Wider Community Building capacity across the community through developing young leaders and young role models from within the project who are supported by the YWiS Trainee. Methods across the YWiS initiative include; Volunteering opportunities Training programmes Work placements [CJS] / Work experience Young person’s committee Youth led/planned activities National Awards Work experience

Example of Volunteer Progression Routes New volunteers coming on to the stewarding program at the age of fourteen would be helping out with the homework club, and that way we can work with them more directly to help develop their skills in working with young people in the Youth room, but also on the Skate Park, and help them understand what’s expected of them. While they’re doing that they would start the Sports Leaders’ level one, and then once they progress on to the level most of the stewards are at now, when they’re helping out in the beginners’ sessions and it’s more up to their own initiative to go into the sessions and work with the young people, then they would be doing the level two of the Sports Leaders’ Award.

Learning and Planning Supported vis Robertson Trust [funding and guidance] Rank Foundation Substance [Views, Data Collection Tools and Methods, Report Score Cards and feedback]

Learning & Planning Overwhelmingly all Trainees agreed that the central benefit associated with learning and planning was; “the ability to be responsive to the needs of the target group” Second most important factor was noted as; “the better understanding they had of the impact of their work”

Learning and Planning Ensuring Management understand and value the evaluation process and support the Trainee in developing new innovative feedback methods; “I have learned a lot more about what we are doing and why and obviously the whole evaluating and how we collect everything together, and I think that has been good for me, because I wasn’t getting any of that. Peter will often say, Right let’s get into this and we are going to talk about Views and we are going to go into talk about now evaluations. And evaluation was a horrible word for me.”

YWiS Examples of Data Collection

Barriers for Organisations to Embed Learning Lack of confidence to embed learning into practice “I’ve known him since he was 16 and he looks up to me in a certain way and it might be intimidating to him.” Achieving buy-in across the team “Rachael can be a bit cautious on the sessions that we’re trying to set up, but the reason for that is she’s been around the block, she knows how difficult it is to get up and running and make them work”

Barriers to Evaluate and Make Use of Data Understanding the importance of data and what to do with it Collecting meaningful data Setting unrealistic aims with no attempt to evidence the indicators “do I think all my staff members made best use of the information? No, because I think they are probably too busy getting on with doing their job”

Next Steps Continue to work with projects to support them in aligning organisational plans with evaluative reporting Provide recommendations on their evidencing of impact Seek to understand how barriers to integrate learning can be overcome Research the current buy-in and values of the organisations Board and Senior Management