Making sport accessible for everyone.
As somebody who has been active within the Sports Union over the past three years, I know how valuable it can be for students to get involved in sport, physical activity and volunteering. However, I also understand that competitive sport does not appeal to everybody: it can be intimidating to join a new club and, frankly, not everybody wants to take part in competitive sport in the first place. If I am elected into the role of Sports Union Participation and Engagement Officer, I hope to make it easier for students to participate in sport or physical activity in the way they prefer. I plan to do this in the following ways:
Creating a new Sports Union Social Club. This would take the form of a regular session (either weekly or fortnightly) that would feature a different activity every session run by our Sports Union clubs. This will be as non-competitive as possible whilst also allowing students to make connections to sports clubs so they can continue their participation in sports they have enjoyed.
Involving more student demographics. Working with other part-time officers, I hope to identify barriers to participation for student demographics such as international, non-traditional and postgraduate students in order to make sport and physical activity more accessible to them.
Establishing Sports Union participation ambassadors. This would be a team of student volunteers who take part in helping design new initiatives to increase participation, encouraging students to get involved with Sports Union activity and helping identify further barriers to participation for the wider student body.