Sports Trusts to Continue with Pioneering Volunteer Project

Lion Foundation and Regional Sports Trusts to Continue with Pioneering
Volunteer Project

Sport Wellington today announced the ongoing support of the Lion Foundation in the pioneering Regional Sports Trust volunteer initiative. In a partnership collective, six regional sports trusts - Sport Wellington, Sport Gisborne Tairawhiti, Sport Hawkes Bay, Sport Manawatu, Sport Taranaki and Sport Whanganui, who each have local volunteer initiatives - will continue to exchange resources including research and information that promotes best practice and innovation in sport volunteerism.

The Lion Foundation, one of New Zealand’s oldest charitable trusts with a strong commitment to community development, has pledged its ongoing support for the second year of the three-year project. Volunteers in the sport and recreation sector in New Zealand are critical to its delivery and its future. They have a significant impact on their communities and their time is calculated to have an economic value of over $1 billion.

“The Lion Foundation support continues to provide an opportunity to make a significant difference to the sporting system across a number of regions” says Ken Allen, Sport Wellington’s Volunteer Strategy Senior Advisor.

The initiative is now into its second year. In year one, the partner RSTs identified regional volunteerism needs, and developed programmes that will contribute to the sustainability of volunteering and volunteers as well as the systems and processes that support sport and active recreation volunteering. Year two will see the partner RSTs continue to implement their programmes alongside their community partners.

Sport Wellington is now supporting sports organisations to plan for better volunteer recruitment and recognition. Ken Allen says “It is encouraging to see organisations starting to take a sustainable approach to volunteerism”.

Sport Wellington CEO Phil Gibbons says “Volunteers sit at the core of the New Zealand sporting system. This project will lead to growth of regional volunteerism, greater recognition and status in regional sports volunteerism, and a sustainable approach to the volunteer process taken by regional sporting organisations.

Sport Wellington is proud to work with Lion Foundation and lead regional RSTs on such an important project”

Within sport and recreation there continues to be a shortage of skilled people in roles or having a thorough understanding of what is expected of them. The Volunteer Project assists RSTs, sports organisations and schools to plan and collaborate more effectively for the benefit of the sport and active recreation workforce.

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