Warwick Sport goes for gold: Inspire mark success

Warwick Sport is going for gold after its Sport Volunteer programme was recently awarded an Inspire mark.

This will be the second Inspire mark, after One World Week Sport was also awarded an Inspire mark earlier this year, the cumulation of which allows the Students’ Union (SU), awarded Bronze accreditation by the National Union of Students (NUS) last year, to aim for gold accreditation.

The London 2012 Inspire marks, awarded to projects and events that are recognised as being genuinely inspired by the Olympic Games, allow chosen projects to use the Inspire logo in advertising. The bronze accreditation recognises Warwick SU’s commitment in creating an environment for Olympic Games-inspired activities to prosper.

“We’ll start working on it in the next few weeks,” commented SU Sports Officer Chris Sury. Although the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Locog), who give out the licenses for the projects, had been “slow” in getting back to the SU, the license arrived last weekend. This means they can now begin collecting the data needed from sports teams to create an online proposal so that others see what the sports clubs are doing in terms of volunteering and can contact sports teams directly to book sessions.

“What it does is collate all of the data from all of the work that the sports clubs already do, which is brilliant because they deserve a lot more praise and accreditation than perhaps they all get,” said Sury.

He especially praised the volunteering initiatives of the rowing, lacrosse and hockey teams, adding: “It’s something that they can be really proud of.” There are also students with disabilities sports sessions planned for week 10 to widen participation in sports at Warwick, and wheelchair basketball and tennis are projects already being pursued.

There is apparently no limit to applications for Inspire marks. However, to apply for gold NUS accreditation, Warwick SU needed two on-campus Inspire projects, so applied for both One World Week Sport and Warwick Sport Volunteer Programme, and are now licensed for both projects.

Jill Hocking is to be the Project Manager next year to help sports clubs, book transport to schools and events, liaise with schools and help with communication between sports clubs and schools.

“[We’re] trying to get more volunteers into local schools, which is what the Olympic ambassador scheme entails,” Hocking explained.

However, not everything has gone smoothly. The One World Week Inspire mark license for Coventry University was mistakenly sent to Warwick, despite the fact that Warwick was already set to receive the mark. Sury said: “We just had to wait that bit further; their mistake, but we forgave them as we got it. No hard feelings.”

Instead, One World Week Sport was informed of its Inspire Mark on Monday of One World Week. “It wasn’t ideal,” said Sury. However, One World Week Sport is to be a year-long project, not merely constrained to One World Week itself. He added that he hoped the next Sports Officer would make use of the Inspire mark for sports projects next year.