As the world gears up for the London 2012 Olympics, Business in the Community's Give & Gain Day has embraced the Olympic spirit in partnership with Sportinspired, one of our Nexters by making sport one of its key themes for this year.
Over 200,000 people applied for the 70,000 Games Maker volunteer roles at London 2012 - in what has been described as the biggest post-war volunteer recruitment drive this country has seen. Yet for people who have been inspired by the Olympics to make a difference in their Community, but perhaps didn't get an official role there are still other ways to get involved in supporting community sports through volunteering. Business in the Community is encouraging more businesses to support Give & Gain Day, the UK's largest employee volunteering day which encourages people from all walks of life to take a day out of work to volunteer on May 18 2012.
To tap into the growing appetite for sports and volunteering and catalyze the Olympics fever across the country, Give & Gain Day is partnering with urban entertainment agency Streets Utd to bring some of the best street sport artists to the Community Games on May 18. The Community Games, run by the social enterprise SportInspired, one of the Big Society Network's Nexters, is an exciting project which aims to get young people inspired to take up new sports, while learning invaluable skills of leadership, teamwork and collaboration, in a fun energy-packed environment - all with the help of Give & Gain day business volunteers. There will be 16 Community Games events this year across the country and the majority of them will have a street sport artist running a sport station on the day. The sports include unicycling, freestyle football, BMX flatlanding and more. Local school children will have the chance to try their hand at these unique sports and business volunteers can use this as a fantastic tool to engage with their local community.
Andrew Henderson, world freestyle football champion, who is the ambassador for Give & Gain Day 2012 will also be donating his time on the day. He will be visiting different Community Games sites in London on the day to show off his incredible skills and inspire both the communities and the volunteers to aim for excellence.
Businesses in the UK have a strong history of supporting volunteering in the local community. Last year 240 companies in the UK sent out 8,456 volunteers on Give & Gain Day - helping 244,000 beneficiaries from community organisations. At a time when vital services for young and vulnerable people are being called upon more than ever, businesses can show their solidarity and give local communities a much needed boost by sending out teams of volunteers to help in schools, day-centres and youth groups on Friday 18May.
Volunteering is often motivated by tapping into people's personal passions. Of course sports is just one of the many ways that people can give back to their communities through Give & Gain Day 2012 and there are hundreds of charities, community groups and voluntary sector organisations that desperately need volunteers on the day.
There are still places for volunteers that want to make a difference in their communities and get involved with Give & Gain Day. For the opportunity to get involved with anything from building and painting local schools to offering employability skills and more visit www.bitc.org.uk/giveandgainday
Sponsored by Lloyds Banking Group, Eversheds LLP, and in association with BT, Give & Gain Day 2012 is dedicated to getting thousands of employees out of the office, store or factory to volunteer in their local communities.
For more information, please contact Preeti.Shetty@bitc.org.uk
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