Northumbria Sport Student Development (Volunteers) Programme has won the prestigious Sport and Recreation Alliance Award 2019!
The award reflects a very dedicated Sport team that includes staff and students working together on campus and throughout the community, including the partnership with the LTA across the North East.
A new and exciting Pop-Up Northumbria Sport programme was introduced this year, which included fully accessible opportunities for everyone across the University who are simply looking for a bit of fun. The range of sports included Swing Ball, Air Hockey, Spike Ball, Foot Golf, Pitch and Put, Football, Basketball and many more.
The University’s two Tennis Ambassadors Jess Southwell and Amy Stevenson were enthused by the concept and were inspired to get tennis involved! Their aim was to widen the breadth of appeal for people not already involved in tennis and to encourage anyone to pick up a racket and give it a go. The students purposely ran the sessions in spaces around campus rather than on a tennis court, and adapted their delivery to showcase tennis as an easy, accessible and fun activity to do! The weekly sessions were a huge success with around 12-14 players attending each pop up session. For those who were interested in finding out more, Jess and Amy shared the social tennis opportunities on campus.
In addition to the campus Pop-Up events, Jess and Amy ran a Wellbeing staff session within the community tennis programme. There were 10 players who were new or coming back to tennis. This session was relaxed and highlighted how getting involved in physical activity could help with managing stress by taking time out of work!
After the above successes Jess and Amy approached Jo Cunliffe (Workforce Development Partner – LTA) to ask if they could do something similar across the Newcastle Tennis Community Programmes. This saw Jess and Amy develop a project plan to deliver a number of Pop-Up sessions at Gosforth Central Park and Exhibition Park linked to the relaunch of the Tennis For Free taking place on Saturdays and Sunday’s. They recruited Student Volunteers to help support the sessions, which saw families enjoy the free, accessible and fun opportunities!
Jess was thrilled by their achievements:
“To see new players and the general public getting involved in the tennis and giving it a go was very rewarding! This has helped increased the profile of tennis in Gosforth Central Park and Exhibition Park, as well as spreading the word about Tennis For Free.”
Amy highlighted what they had learnt from the experience:
“Northumbria Sport at the University is giving us so many opportunities to learn. We have learnt so much about project planning, managing a team and providing fun, engaging and new opportunities for people to try activities! To see it all come together has been extremely satisfying. To know we’ve played a part in helping the University win the National Award is something we will cherish forever!”
Jo Cunliffe (Workforce Development Partner) was buzzing:
“What a fantastic achievement for Northumbria University and we are so honoured to have played a part in their success. There is nothing more rewarding supporting our next generation and all the students who have become involved in tennis through the partnership have been a credit to themselves and the University. I am 100% certain they will be a huge asset to whichever organisations are lucky to recruit them in the future!”