Project: Coventry Blaze Community Sports Leadership

Coventry Blaze Ice Hockey Club delivers a sports leadership and confidence-building programme for local out-of-work people with the help of Coventry Blaze players

The Community Sports Leadership project, funded by an ESF community grant, delivers sports leadership training for unemployed people in the Coventry area. In an innovative approach to attracting project participants, the Coventry Blaze Ice Hockey Club general manager organised a jobs fair in collaboration with the city council and other community organisations to promote a wide range of career-oriented development opportunities, resulting in a better match of people to appropriate programmes. The Blaze project builds upon the reputation of the ice hockey team, where their players act as role models in the local community. The project has significantly improved levels of confidence as well as basic pre-employment and leadership skills for participants, leading to positive employment and educational outcomes.

Project feature

The programme evolved from work that the Coventry Blaze Ice Hockey team manager was doing with volunteers and a wish to extend the club's community engagement programme, utilising their unique skills and facilities. The programme is funded by an ESF community grant and offers participants the chance to take part in a four-day community sports leadership programme, based at the Coventry Blaze team facilities. The course is both practical and theoretical, integrating key employability skills with sports leadership training. Participants must be over 19 years old, unemployed, and living in Coventry or Warwickshire. Coventry Blaze work closely with two partners to deliver a unique learning package - Si Sports for the sports leadership training and Level 2 qualification, and Pertemps for employability skills such as CV writing and interview techniques. Thirty participants were funded in 2009 for two courses of 15 people on each course.

A broad-ranging approach was taken to promote the programme. Rather than advertising their project alone, James Pease, general manager at Coventry Blaze adopted a wider community perspective. Liaising with Coventry City Council and local community organisations, a jobs fair was organised to disseminate information to local unemployed people on numerous opportunities to improve their employment prospects. At the jobs fair, Coventry Blaze promoted their community grants funded programme delivering employability skills and Sports Leadership.

The event was marketed in libraries, leisure and community centres, and to employers such as the army and recruitment agencies Other promotional activity included direct marketing of 3000 leaflets, radio interviews with Touch FM,  Mercia and BBC Coventry and Warwickshire, and an  article published in the Coventry Telegraph. Attendees to the job fair were exposed to numerous organisations, programmes or channels providing support for career progression and work opportunities. The method of promoting the project to prospective participants has ensured that only those who really wanted to engage in the specific activities of this project take part. This means there is a lower drop-out rate and minimises time wastage for both participants and those delivering the programme. They have now held two highly successful jobs fairs with a total of approximately 250 attending.

Contact details

James Pease, General Manager and Academy Chairman
Coventry Blaze Ice Hockey Club
Coventry Blaze Ice Hockey Team 18 Market Way, Coventry, CV1 1DL
(024) 7622 3220 (07737) 761894
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