Young Officials Project (YODO)

Competitive sport cannot exist without match officials; they are the people who make it happen but are often forgotten about.  YST want to invest time in recruiting and developing the next generation of officials across all sports and promote their use in school and local competition.

YST are concerned that the average age of technical sports officials such as judges, referees and scorers is naturally increasing, and there is no current structure that enables young people to take up these roles. 

Therefore, the importance of this project is paramount to challenge and support National Governing Bodies (NGBs) to establish a structure for the development of young officials and offer opportunities for young volunteers to take up these roles.  (See appendix for outputs achieved to date).

United Utilities will be supporting the YST Step into Sport camp this year (6-9 April 2009) at Loughborough University.  Young people, selected by their school, are to attend the event, which focuses on growing and deploying young leaders.

  
If you would like to know more about Youth Sport Trust please go to http://www.youthsporttrust.org 
 

Achievements to date

 
Youth Sport Trust held a recruitment day held to appoint full-time volunteers into positions as Young Official Development Officers (YODOs).  Eleven YODOs were appointed:
 
 
  Athletics = Gemma Werret
  Badminton = Sandy Kurek
  Boccia = Kat Southwell
  Cricket = Fergus Guppy
  Fencing = Hannah Chenneour-Cocking
  Gymnastics = Laura Whitehead
  Judo = Stefan Newbury
  Swimming = Mark Strachan
  Table Tennis = Neil Raine (Hull based)
  Tennis = Lucy Grant
  Volleyball = Chris Stott
 
 
The funding from United Utilities and V has enabled Youth Sport Trust to add two additional YODOs to the list in Rugby Union and Rugby League.  These are yet to be appointed.  These Young Officials will now be able to act as judges, refereers and scorers in their chosen sports as well as acting as ambassadors for both the governing bodies of the sport and Youth Sport
 
Youth Sport Trust were able to assist the 2008 UK Sports Games by providing 80 young officials to help out in both Bristol and Bath.  The 2009 UK Sports Games will be held in Cardiff and more details of this event can be found on the Get Involved page.
 
 Induction days with both Youth Sport Trust and their respective sports have been held for all 11 YODOs.   In October last year, the 11 YODOs all met up to discuss benchmarking and to share best practice amongst sports in general.
 
Eight sports have benefitted by the training of 329 new young officials, who will be able to officiate at events such as the UK Sports Games but also matches and competitions.  The 8 sports are:
 
  Athletics
  Badminton
  Boccia
  Fencing
  Gymnastics
  Swimming
  Table Tennis
  Tennis
 
In some of the sports outlined above, Youth Sport Trust have also been able to offer tutor training.