Hillsborough juniors – a celebration of our first two years

Posted on 23/08/2023 by Linda Cairns

A junior parkrun that brings a Sheffield park alive with volunteers and children on Sunday mornings

“We are the sum of our parts. Our core volunteer base who turn up week in week out, in all weathers are the absolute stars of of our junior parkrun. You know who you are, and you are amazing.” Diane, Volunteer Coordinator

Children running across the start line of the first Hillsborough junior parkrun

I’m writing this sitting on a sunny and windswept campsite, in the far corner of Pembrokeshire in Wales, sheltering in the lee of a substantial old hedge. The Swifts are swooping around me catching insects in mid air. It’s Sunday morning and as I write 195 children are striding or skipping their way around the 2k course in Hillsborough Park, Sheffield, 250 miles away.

I first met Diane and Keith over a coffee at the Riverside Café in Hillsborough. They had offered to be part of the team, in whatever role was needed, to help with the new junior event. I put to them the idea of being volunteer coordinators and they agreed – with little idea of what that would really involve.

The seed for a new junior event in Sheffield had been sown in a chance conversation with John, the Event Director and main man at the Hillsborough 5k, late in 2019. I must have enquired if there had been any interest in a junior event given that there was such a thriving 5k. I probably let slip that I’d started and been the Event Director of Guildford juniors up until my move to South Yorkshire. And so the challenge was mine to accept.

Just before Christmas, John published an announcement on the 5k news page and by Jan 2020 we’d already assembled most of the team. We met, rather formally I recall, at the café at the Sheffield Olympic Legacy junior parkrun. We’d all volunteered and then their EDs shared some wisdom and gave us a quick demo on how to process results.

By February 2020 I had secured all the funding we needed to to start our new juniors and I was able to submit everything to parkrun HQ. The majority of the funds came from the Sheffield Town Trust and Sheffield City Council Ward Pot, plus donations from the local orienteering, triathlon and running clubs and a kind local donor who made up the final shortfall. We then had to wait 18 months as the Covid Pandemic paused all parkruns in the UK and beyond. Our inaugural event was finally held on 15/8/2021 where we had a manageable 44 children.

As I scribble plans for a new junior parkrun and prepare to say farewell to Hillsborough, I’m holding down the pages of my notebook in the gusts. I recall why we are camped next to the big hedge on this windswept field in Wales. Thank you Keith for your tip on where to pitch on this site so far away. “Don’t go for the view, go for the shelter”. You were spot on!

A little girl smiling and running with children and parents in the background

Things I’ll take with me from Hillsborough Juniors

Sophie overwhelming the marshals with loveliness
From the first event, young Sophie (and her parents) have played a key part in helping on junior parkrun day. After watching me brief the marshals for the first few weeks, Sophie stepped into this role, and confidently explained to a bunch of adults the responsibilities to keep the children safe and what to do if one took a tumble. She encouraged them to clap and cheer the juniors and she advised them that there might be grumpy park users who didn’t like the paths being full of young children – and that the best way to deal with moaners was to “overwhelm them with loveliness”. Oh how I smiled to hear my expression come out of Sophie’s mouth!

Keith and his happy hour
Within a year, Keith had stepped into the role of Co-Event Director bringing a calm, responsible, mature pragmatism to this role. It was a welcome addition to the team, a great help to me as by now I no longer lived in Sheffield, and a reflection that Diane was single-handedly mastering volunteer coordinating. I love that Keith describes junior parkrun as his “happiest hour of the week”.

Young volunteer smiling in her High Viz jacket

Flynn being a junior role model
Flynn was our first finisher on our first event. He’s a regular first or fast finisher and usually catches his breath, pops on a high vis and starts scanning. We love to see juniors volunteering at junior parkrun. Flynn is now the proud owner of a 100 run wristband.

Oscar who had his 4th birthday on parkrun day
Ringing his cowbell and shouting “go faster”, Oscar became a regular marshal as it got closer to his 4th birthday. To his mum’s great excitement that important day was on a Sunday – a day now known as “parkrun day” in their house. On that big 4 day they ran a bit, walked a lot, hopped, galloped, and chased each other, accompanied by his cousins and his nana, and cheered on by birthday high-fives from the marshals.

Young volunteer with her mum and dad celebrating 100 volunteering days at parkrun

Katy – Oscar’s mum making it fun
Now that Oscar is about to get his half-marathon band, Katie, who is a competitive mountain runner, says her biggest takeaway is to make it fun. “Every week we go at Oscar’s pace and that’s OK, we’re there. For anyone thinking of taking their little one and unsure – go for it. Whether you walk or run, make it all the way or just do one lap, you’ll be made very welcome.”

Michael
A keen VM70-74 parkrunner, who started his journey into athletics on the long-since closed Hillsborough track, ran 5 miles each way to help at the inaugural event. Michael acknowledges our hardy and dedicated volunteers who turn out in all weathers and he’s been a regular in a high-viz ever since. “I’m glad to see the park now being used to give our youngsters a great start to the day and which, for some, may be a starting point to an athletic future.”

Diane – once met never forgotten
According to Keith, Diane never sits still so, if you’ve volunteered at Hillsborough juniors, you will know that an offer is always accepted and processed on the parkrun website within minutes. Diane sometimes can’t be physically there on the day but Keith can’t remember a time over the last 2 years when she didn’t coordinate and process the volunteer system from wherever they have been – Cape Verdi was probably the furthest away. There is a lovely community feel about volunteering at Hillsborough juniors, everyone knows each other and there’s always a buzz while we wait for the children to arrive which is no small measure down to Diane making sure she knows everyone: Once met never forgotten!

Lessons I’ve learnt from Hillsborough juniors

The volunteer team on a cold, damp winter morning

A friendly, conscientious Volunteer Coordinator can make the difference between a struggling rota and a full one
A rota of 5-6 Run Directors means the role never becomes onerous
Expect churn amongst your volunteers and core team – life circumstances change a lot for young families
A core team WhatsApp group is a good idea to keep EDs/RDs/Comms connected
A general volunteer WhatsApp group is a friction-free way for adult volunteers to offer to help – and works well if the Volunteer Coordinator can keep up with it and assign names to roles in the online rota
Having extra Run Directors in the park is reassuring if the weather forecast is dodgy eg icy or if there is work going on in the park (even if the landowner assures you it will not impact, unexpected things can happen)
The heart-warming way that local runners and non-runners can embrace a junior event and become regulars helping in the park on a Sunday.

Me holding up a big bunch of flowers when I hear my name shouted out at the very first event

Dedicated to Diane – Volunteer Coordinator and chief flower organiser! I know that you love what you do, and that you do what comes intuitively. You’ve been instrumental in building our community of volunteers and I think that you are exactly what every junior parkrun needs on their team. Linda

Hillsborough junior parkrun event statistics

Events: 91
Finishers: 1,188
Finishes: 7,418
Average finishers per week: 81.5
Volunteers: 237
PBs: 1,688
Average finish time: 00:13:52
Average finishes per participant: 6.2
Groups: 22
Stats last updated: Fri 11 Aug 2023 01:31:30 UTC

https://www.parkrun.org.uk/hillsborough-juniors/

Photo Credits George Carman and other volunteers

Government strategy and funding for sport volunteers

Posted on 28/09/2017 by volunteer

At the end of 2015, the UK Government published Sporting Future: A new strategy for an active nation. This strategy marked the biggest shift in Government policy on sport in more than a decade, and it actually mentions sport volunteering. It recognises that volunteering enriches the life of the volunteer and not just the participants whose sport activity is facilitated – “the double benefit of sport volunteering”. The Government wants to encourage sport and physical activity volunteering for its own sake and the strategy includes a case study on volunteering at parkrun, recognising that …..

parkrun has established a new model for community sport volunteering which puts the volunteer centre stage.

This case study makes me punch the air because it fits with what I have been getting excited about for years, see It’s an honour to volunteer for parkrun and parkrun volunteers get cold fingers and toes and a warm feeling inside.

The strategy also recognises the importance of recruiting, retaining and rewarding volunteers who are representative of the entire population. It mentions a better online system for brokering sport volunteering opportunities (Consortium takes over Join In) and I am optimistic that it also means more recognition of the skills needed for volunteer management.

In response to Sporting Future, Sport England published its Volunteering Strategy in December 2016: Volunteering in an active nation. I had an opportunity to contribute ideas to this strategy and this is what I said:

My ideas on what works well for managing volunteers:

Focus on positives and benefits that volunteers gain by their actions; avoid talking about volunteering in terms of “giving up”, “making sacrifices” etc
Look after them as real people and manage them professionally
Simplify and standardise the processes for people to offer to volunteer – parkrun is great example
Value volunteer management and help people do it well
Celebrate the achievements of volunteers
Break traditional volunteer roles into chunks; encourage job-sharing

My ideas on volunteering by under-represented groups and young people

Nationally lots of youth organisations are focussing on mental health and there is big opportunity to improve wellbeing and raise aspirations through volunteering and/or youth social action
Effective work with under-represented groups needs partners on the ground who have prior relationships with the target volunteers
Activities need to be done with young people not done to young people
Best to offer a mix of activities, and to locate the volunteering in the communities as lack of transport is a barrier
To focus on physical activities rather than sport coaching we need people who empathise with beginners rather than coaches who want to develop elite players – need more organisers and activators
Empower and incentivise younger officials/club organisers. Help clubs welcome young energy and ideas that are often obstructed by an ageing, dogmatic workforce (easy to say, hard to do)

Where are we now?

Sport England has two funds supporting volunteering: The Opportunity Fund (targets people, aged 20+, from economically disadvantaged communities) and The Potentials Fund (targets children and young people aged 10 to 20, with a particular focus on 10-14 year-olds, who are interested in doing something to benefit their community, through social action.) Expressions of interest in the first round of these funds are now closed. See Volunteer Funding Investment Guide for more information. Sport England is making up to £26 million over 4 years available to support implementation of their Volunteering in an active nation strategy.
You can find a volunteering opportunity or post your volunteering opportunities on Join In
Sport England gives some very useful advice for volunteer managers here: Volunteering explained
The first Annual Report on Sporting Future was published in February this year.

The first Annual Report on Sporting Future

This 40-page report has a succinct and positive message for the future of sport volunteering. Copied below.

“Volunteering

4.32 Sporting Future takes a new approach to volunteering, recognising the positive impact it has on volunteers themselves as well as the benefits to sports and the importance of recruiting, retaining and rewarding volunteers who are representative of the entire population.

A new volunteering strategy

4.33. Sport England published its new volunteering strategy on 1 December 2016. The strategy’s objectives are to:

ensure better quality, meaningful volunteering experiences
increase the diversity of those who volunteer in sport and activity
increase the number of volunteers in sport and activity

Sport England is making up to £26 million over 4 years available to support implementation of this strategy.

Information about volunteering opportunities

4.34 In its volunteering strategy Sport England recognises and promotes the crucial role that digital communications can play as an enabler to increase the number and diversity of sport volunteers. As this strategy is implemented in 2017 and beyond Sport England will consider how it can best support the use of digital technology in sport volunteering.

Employee volunteering

4.35 Sport England will work with other agencies to increase the number of sport and physical activity volunteering opportunities that can be taken up by employees.

Rewards for volunteers

4.36 A joint Sport England/UK Sport review shows that national governing bodies generally engage regular volunteers from the grassroots as volunteers at major events they are hosting. UK Sport will encourage this practice to continue through its application and award process for major events funding. Support for national governing bodies on this is covered in Sport England’s volunteering strategy and both UK Sport and Sport England will be sharing best practice.”

The future

I am waiting with interest to see the outcome of the first Sport England Funding round and to see what types of projects were funded and which partners Sport England chose to work with. This will help us all understand funding priorities for subsequent rounds.

I am also eagerly awaiting developments with the new Join In Consortium under the Sport and Recreation Alliance and I really hope that we get good volunteer brokering functionality that really does “make sport and recreation volunteering more representative and accessible”. The parkrun volunteer system works, and has worked well for years. It is simple and enables participants to put their hand up for a specific job on a specific day and for local teams to manage their own volunteer roster. If you are not familiar with parkrun, you can see how it works here: volunteer at Guildford junior parkrun.

Proud

Posted on 16/02/2016 by volunteer

Last weekend, we celebrated my 100th run at Guildford parkrun. And somebody hummed this tune.

The build up to my 100 started with She’s the girl!!!!. And in the briefing, the Event Director informed 320 runners that they were all shivering in Stoke Park on a bitterly cold February day because of me. Because four years ago I helped set up Guildford parkrun. He joked that it had taken me four whole years to reach my century milestone – and hinted at my lack of commitment, and then revealed that it had taken so long because I had volunteered nearly 100 times too.

I’m pleased that I’ve earned a coveted black 100 T-shirt. Although plenty of runners have done it before me. In fact, at the time of writing, there are 13526 other runners in the parkrun “100 club“.

I’m far more proud of my volunteering T-shirt and the part I have played in Guildford parkrun. Nothing beats the feeling that we’ve started something that will carry on – every week – free – and organised by volunteers.

And I know the current Event Directors are proud of our event and our parkrun community. Even the Council are proud of our parkrun. It made the front cover of the Guildford Sport Development Strategy.

This weekend I found out just how many people are proud of our 5k run in the park.

For all the volunteers, the core team and especially the present Event Directors, this is for us. Hum a little tune.

So, I’m worth £16,000

Posted on 26/10/2014 by volunteer

…..as one of the 3.2 million people who regularly volunteer in sport.

Join in, the volunteering organisation, set out to calculate the true value that a sport volunteer contributes to society. Using information on the “Social Value of Volunteering” from the Bank of England, Join In has released ground-breaking research in it’s report Hidden Diamonds.They evaluated the increase in wellbeing and improvement in mental health for both the volunteer and the sports participants and found that:

A volunteer creates the capacity for at least 8.5 people to participate.

One volunteer in sport creates wellbeing worth £16,000

Join in talks about us volunteers as investing our time, skills and energies in creating opportunities for others to take part in sport. In doing this, we are seen to be creating community assets. Hardly surprising then that a volunteer in sport is significantly more likely to feel good about their community than someone who doesn’t volunteer.

Join in compared the community feel-good factor between volunteers and non-volunteers and demonstrated that volunteering boosts happiness and wellbeing.

Compared to those who have never volunteered in sport, 87% of people who volunteer agreed that their life has meaning.

If you volunteer in sport you are significantly more likely to trust people in your community

We know that sports clubs and volunteer-led events like parkruns bring communities together and we feel happier as a result. I believe that quite a few people go home from volunteering feeling better than they do after competing. But is nice to see the social value of volunteering being recognised and hear the Bank of England’s chief economist describing volunteering as a hidden jewel.

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