Supporting Community Clubs
We know how much great work clubs do in providing regular opportunities for people in their community to take part in outdoor activities.
We also know that all this work is done by volunteers.
We want to help these clubs and their volunteers.
If your club affiliates with us at The Outdoor Partnership, we can offer a range of support.
General Affiliation:
We encourage all eligible clubs, who are providing regular outdoor activity provision for local residents, to affiliate with us. This doesn’t cost anything! It’s just a case of completing our online form (see bottom of the page), and providing information about your club. Once affiliated your club will be seen on our website and can receive information and support from us.
As an Outdoor Partnership affiliated club, your club will benefit from the following:
- Advice and support from your regional development officer on club structure and governance, advice on funding sources and volunteer recruitment and retention, advice on training and NGB awards, guidance on inclusivity (e.g. Insport Accreditation)
- Free promotion of your club and your events on our website and social media pages
- Each club will have a single vote in our AGM
- Access for volunteers to subsidised safeguarding courses that are delivered virtually
General Affiliation with Coach Education support (Advanced):
Some clubs at some points have a need to train volunteers to support the activities of the club. We can subsidise the costs for volunteers in your club to attend certain courses to help with their role in the club. To access this support you need to affiliate with coach education support. If you take up this option there is a fee of £150 per year.
If you take this option, your club will be guaranteed £500 worth of support within the year affiliation period (April to March). Any requests over this amount will be subject to available funds. Clubs will need to prioritise their requests, based on the club needs.
*A club needs to be affiliated with the National Governing Body of their activity to be able to take the advanced affiliation option with us.
All clubs will need to follow our request process when requesting support for their volunteers; completing a request for funding form on behalf of the volunteer/s. The form can be accessed through the club profile after the £150 fee has been paid.
Generally, our funding is best suited to individual volunteer needs and requests. If you have a large number of volunteers needing to attend the same course simultaneously, we recommend exploring alternative funding routes.
*Clubs can opt in and out of this option on an annual basis depending on their need for coach education support.
With this option, your club will benefit from the following:
- Advice and support from your regional development officer on club structure and governance, advice on funding sources and volunteer recruitment and retention, advice on training and NGB awards, guidance on inclusivity (e.g. Insport accreditation)
- Free promotion of your club and your events on our website and social media pages
- Each club will have a single vote in our AGM
- Access for volunteers to subsidised Safeguarding courses that are delivered virtually
AND
- Access for your volunteers to subsidised courses
- Courses will be subsidised so that volunteers only pay £20 per day for a course
- Volunteers need to find and book their own place on a course (checking it is one we can support can be done with the list below)
- They should make a provisional booking initially
- If approved, we pay the invoice (for full cost of the course only) direct to the course provider, and the volunteer pays a contribution of £20 per day direct to us
- The club will nominate one person to be responsible for all requests on behalf of the club and all volunteers
