By listening to children and young people and embracing youth voice we are allowing them to have a say in shaping sport and physical activity. This will then help make the sport and physical activities more relevant, enjoyable, and enable young people to support their peers to be more active.
Children and young people must be given the opportunity to express a view, they must be listened to and the views must be acted on, when appropriate.
The benefits for this youth voice focus is:
The benefits for your organisation are:
The Play Their Way campaign looks at the importance of child-first coaching – an evidence-informed approach that priorities the fundamental rights of all children and young people in sport and activity.
There are three key ingredients to this approach, as underpinned by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child – the rights of children and young people to play, to develop and to be heard.
Voice – Children and young people have the right to express their views which are acted on together in a meaningful way.
Choice – Children and young people have the right to play and shape what play looks like.
Journey – Children and young people have the right to develop holistically, in their own way.
Below are a couple of useful downloads, including a toolkit created by the one of our fellow Active Partnerships - Energise Me in Hampshire - and a reflections sheet to help you analyse your child-first coaching practice.
Dive into child-first coaching with The Play Their Way Podcast. If you're a coach passionate about young lives, this is for you.
Join Laura-Jane Jones as she explores the core of coaching children and young people: voice, choice, and journey. Expert guests share their top coaching strategies, best practices, and philosophies focused on children's unique paths. Tune in and delve into how to empower their individual voice, respect their choices, and guide their journeys, cultivating a deep passion for sport and physical activity, while helping them reach their full potential.
Nick is the Strategic Workforce Officer for Active Sussex, leading on workforce development for Active Sussex and the implementation of the Workforce Delivery Plan. Nick leads on projects such as the Workforce Investment Fund, Coach Core and Project 500, and is also the CYP Safeguarding Lead Officer for Active Sussex.
Email: nchellel@activesussex.org