The new British Tennis Youth Group (BTYG) met for the first time over the weekend to start their two year journey being the first consultative body of young people working with the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) and the Tennis Foundation.
The group will be working on the development of new tennis offers and campaigns aimed at young people alongside working at some of Britain’s biggest tournaments, delivering regional young volunteer events and student tennis conferences.
The group, who were recruited in July, are representatives from across British Tennis varying in age from 17 to 24 and travelling all the way from Devon to Dundee.
Across the weekend the group were put straight to work, consulting on rewarding and recognising young volunteers, coming up with creative and achievable ideas to keep young people motivated in volunteering.
Jenny Box, Volunteer Engagement Manager, commented: “It’s great to work with such an enthusiastic and knowledgeable bunch of young people and I’m looking forward to getting projects underway and seeing these guys really make a difference to British Tennis”.
The weekend also saw Harry Stow voted to as the Chairperson of the British Tennis Youth Group and Oliver Biles to be the Vice Chair. This process will be repeated after one year.
Speaking afterwards Stow said: "I've been overwhelmed by the enthusiasm of the group, what a team we've got and so many ideas! I'm honoured to be representing such inspiring young people and can't wait to get started"
Biles added: “I’ve had a lot of fun and it’s nice to finally meet everyone and start working towards positive change in British tennis”.
Tom Gibbins, Head of Education said: “It’s been an inspiring weekend, with so much positivity and forward thinking from this high quality group. We’re looking forward to working with them over the coming years to ensure that young people’s views are embedded across British Tennis going forwards”.
To get to know the British Tennis Youth Group, and to keep up to date with what they’ve been up to visit the BTYG home page: www.lta.org.uk/youthgroup
If you’re aged 16-25 years old, tell us what great work you’ve been doing to get more people playing tennis by tweeting us @BritishTennis and using #YGTennis