As a COACH ABROAD volunteer, you will support a project of your choice in the community, at school or in after-school programmes. Typically, you will coach children and young people in a specific sport during school hours or in after-school activities. Each project has different aims and needs different support. This could be organisational help, coaching or both.
Depending on your needs and interests, you can help both on and off the field. Organisational support could include fundraising, sponsorship, public relations and marketing. Depending on the project, this may also include extra-curricular activities for your protégés, such as homework supervision.
As a sports coach, you will plan and run training sessions, support your local coaching colleagues and organise matches and tournaments. You may also help run coaching workshops for teachers and aspiring local coaches, or run workshops yourself. You will also use your sports unit to develop the social skills of children and young people.
Depending on the project, you will work independently to plan training sessions or events in collaboration with the project managers. Bear in mind that you will be supporting the project initiator in his or her work, but you can also actively advise him or her at any time and should do so on the basis of your sporting experience. Of course, this should be done on an equal footing and in close teamwork. Consistent pursuit of the set goals will help the project and, of course, you.
In the project description you will find relevant information about the daily tasks and examples of what a typical day in this project might look like. This can of course vary depending on the time of year (school holidays, season) or the sporting task (e.g. organising a tournament). Also, the times given for your support may change if, for example, a tournament or activity is planned and organised for a weekend.
We try to ask for and provide as much detail as possible. However, please note that “nothing is set in stone”. Procedures and activities can change at any time and the times should be taken as a guideline. Ultimately, everything will fall into place and you will have the flexibility to organise your own ambitious plan on the ground.
