Clwyd Special Riding Centre — Coaching for the Future

Receiving the approval of our application for the GwirVol Youth Volunteering “Opportunities” Grant was a true high point in the difficult financial year of 2010. The grant allowed the Centre to move forward with the plan to train a group of young volunteers to become assistant coaches and helpers within our Riding for the Disabled Groups.

The recruits have shown enthusiasm and a true desire to learn throughout the programme, thus making the projects challenges less daunting and more achievable. The participants were enrolled onto the United Kingdom Coaching Certificate (UKCC) Level 1 course and also the Riding for the Disabled Associations (RDA) Green Card training.

The UKCC Level 1 course is aimed at taking inexperienced future coaches through the first steps of the coaching process. The participants were all aiming to become UKCC Assistant Coaches. Each participant was allocated a mentor and had regular sessions with the mentors working their way through the Portfolio. The Portfolio is a major tool for the course; it guides the participants through each step and records all learning by means of Activity Planners, Risk Assessment Sheets, Evaluation Sheets and Future Action Plans. The participants attended a St. Johns 1st Aid course and a NSPCC Child Protection Course.

We then had to move into the indoor school and the participants started to coach alongside an experienced qualified Group Instructor. This was the most daunting part for all of the participants but with gentle coaching and making it all fun the young volunteers soon grew in confidence and enjoyed learning more new skills. Participating within the RDA Groups allowed the young volunteers to meet new people and make new friends. They made a real difference to so many of our riders' lives and found a sense of community.

The final stage of the UKCC Level 1 was the formal assessment. Here the young volunteers had to demonstrate their ability to act as an assistant coach for fifteen minutes on a given topic and to engage in a question and answer session with the independent assessor. Each of the young volunteers felt the obvious nerves about the assessment but showed confidence and knowledge throughout the duration and answered the questions with clear understanding of their subjects.

With the RDA Green Card Training the young volunteers learnt how to lead a horse with and without a disabled rider and to walk beside a horse when a disabled rider was mounted acting as a helper to the rider should they need reassurance or assistance. This training also brought awareness of being around the horse and what sort of behaviour is acceptable and what is not and appropriate clothing that is suitable for being around the horses and dealing with the weather conditions. Each participant received a record of this training that was signed off by a qualified Coach Educator.

During all of the training each of our young volunteers was working with an RDA Group and all of the voluntary hours where recorded and used as evidence towards the qualifications. So far fifteen volunteers have been recruited onto the course. Nine of which are aged between sixteen and twenty five. Due to a change in the post of Centre Manager an extension to the duration of the grant was applied for and we are now running the course until March 2012. A new recruitment drive is planned for September and we are confident of the remaining eleven places for the sixteen to twenty five year olds to be filled.

The grant has produced a group of young people that are well trained with a qualification that can go with them into further volunteering and into the work place. The young volunteers have become assistant coaches with the RDA Groups, Group organisers and actively helping with riding and equestrian vaulting sessions.

Two members of the Centre staff shadowed the mentoring sessions and have become proficient mentors who will be used in future training sessions.

Overall the Grant has been a huge success in providing the training of young volunteers and centre staff. It has made a real difference to over one hundred and seventy five riders and vaulters but also a real difference to the young people themselves. Taking the first steps towards the move from education to employment or from unemployment to employment by developing new skills and showing acumen towards work by volunteering.