MENTORING THROUGH SPORT
SPORTING BUDDIES - Mentoring through Sport
Sporting Buddies
Sporting Bunnies, (the managing company for Two2go) sees sport and leisure pursuits
as key factors in contributing to health, well-being, self esteem and happiness; we know
that encouragement of positive leisure time to increase confidence and widen networks
can equip a young person with the vital skills to cope with the future. We believe that our
range of sporting and exercise opportunities offers a vehicle to promote inter-generational
collaboration and has the potential for new mentoring opportunities.
The Role Of The Mentor
We view a mentor as a positive, experienced person giving non judgemental encouragement,
advice and guidance, and able to spend quality consistent time with a young person. When
linked to sport and leisure pursuits, there are the additional benefits of shared enjoyment &
activity, enabling a young person to achieve success, to gain recognition and most importantly to gain
in confidence and self esteem - the gateway to resilience for young people. There is the
opportunity to establish links with our parallel Fit_50 programme with older role models, also
keen to make the move to a fitter lifestyle and mentoring.
East London has a high population of varied ethnic minority groups, primary
black African ( 25% in Hackney), black African Caribbean (20%), Bangladeshi and Pakistani
of whom a higher than average proportion were not born in the UK. With 36% Muslim faith in
one borough, we have already been asked to help in getting Muslim women into exercise and sport.
Mentoring Through Sport
Using the legacy of the Olympic and Paralympic Games as a catalyst for change, Sporting
Bunnies is in the initial stages of researching and developing a mentoring programme for
young people in East London, particularly BME young people and adolescent girls. The
programme will be devised so as to use organised team and individual sport & exercise
programmes for young people to:
Build a trusting relationships with a mentor
Develop additional socialisation skills outside their normal family and peer group
networks
Use participation in sport to encourage teamwork, commitment and a wider sense of
responsibility
Gain Increased fitness and greater understanding of the benefits of fitness and
nutrition for health and well-being
Create healthy and achievable lifestyles
Have fun together!
How does Sporting Bunnies fit with mentoring through sport?
We are committed to organising at least six annual events offering a range of activities with the aim of
being regular events in the sporting calendar of East London. The focus of many of our events
will be on team participation and fun. We seek inter-generational relay teams to:
• Run our 3k or 10k races
• Compete in our twice yearly mini triathlons or duathlons
• Take part in football challenges and other events as they emerge
Our partnerships
We have already created links with other charities and organisations working in East London and
with BME client groups. We will expand our programme of events, seeking to identify those
groups for which exercise, sport and the social interaction are most needed.
In the past two years we have worked with black role models such as David Akinsanya (Channel
4 series on adoption) and Christine Ohuruogu (gold medallist Beijing). There are other sporting
celebrities working in East London (Tessa Sanderson runs the Sport Academy in Newham)
Fatima Whitbread (adopted) and Dame Kelly Holmes. Local Olympian gold medal boxer James DeGale
has offered his support and endorsement of Two2go.
Our first step will be to carry out a review of mentoring opportunities already available for
boys and girls in East London. We have already found, through our other projects, that the
communication between both small and large organisations within different East London
boroughs is not good. We are anxious to work in partnership or alongside other projects,
rather than reinvent the wheel.
The future of mentoring girls through sport
Whilst not working exclusively with girls, it is our aim to create a robust programme that will
focus on providing suitable and appealing avenues for adolescent girls who are at risk due to
economic factors, behavioural problems, pregnancy (or who have terminated pregnancies or
are young mothers), those who are suffering from obesity or eating disorders, and those who are not enrolled in formal education. There will be key measures in place to ensure that this service reaches all
BME groups and participation targets will be set.
The programmes will be tailored to insure that the activities offered are suitable and engaging
for adolescent girls and research will be done to decide the most appropriate forms of sport
to pursue. It may also be necessary to organise several different programmes based on the
needs of the 'at risk' groups; for example a group of young mothers will have very different
needs from a group suffering from an eating disorder. All of these considerations will be
covered in the research.
Organisations such as Leyton Orient Football Club have huge community sport programmes
that offer similar mentoring through sport programmes. They have a great success
rate, focussing primarily on adolescent boys. From the initial research we have noted
disproportionately less programmes aimed at adolescent girls; sports such as running, triathlon and netball with international black role models lend themselves to the potential for establishing
mentoring links.
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