A Snowy Introduction to the Norwegian Sporting World

Four Girls, Three Lads and Geordie went Norway. Its the start of a really bad joke or the beginning of our study tour? We’ll let you decide over the next 7 days as we will be sharing what we have learnt from our Norwegian sporting adventure!

Day 1-3

Three days in Norway have passed and certainly has left an impression on the group; from the friendly hospitality to sheer surprise at seeing the city fully functioning as snow falls all around us. Our first interaction with Norwegian sporting life involved us going to a volunteers conference for the Akershus region, which has been run for the last 10 years, a way of bringing together individuals from clubs all over the regions to celebrate, motivate and inspire.

Certainly a novel way of inspiring the room was by raffling off a cheque for 10000 Krone (£1000) to one lucky club!

An engaging inspirational talk from Jan Fredrik Karlsen (the Simon Cowell of Norway) and a one to one discussion with Erik Thorstvedt (former Tottenham Hotspur FC keeper) helped us take away some core messages:
- Sporting bodies need to work together in an integrated fashion for sports to be a success
- Seems so simple but shared resources, expertise and facilities allows more funding to be devoted to grassroots development
- Volunteers don't need to come from sport
- Expertise is all around us and every volunteer can offer something unique and valuable - How do you seek out people to help with your club/organisation?
- Club Development + Better Facilities = Better Public Health (One Society Delivering it all)
- Politically driven, but fundamentally central to Norwegian sporting success and development - Volunteers sit at the centre of all of this.

To couple these learnings with the fact that two thirds of the volunteers attending were female and a large proportion were young people suggests that the message is getting through from the outset of sporting lives and when comparing to the This Girl Can campaign, perceptions around sport for females is inspiring them to continue in multiple roles.

It would be too quick to think that we should adopt this as the best way to practice, the next few days involve us meeting regional councils, national sporting bodies, clubs and youth groups to get the feeling from those that are influencing volunteers. Thats when we will be able to get a full picture of the sporting
landscape.

‘Sport is Always Adaptable no Matter What’ Its a running joke that the UK grinds to halt with a sprinkling of snow, well that just doesn't happen here. Whilst we struggled our way up hills to the incredible Holmenkollen (the world’s most modern Ski Jump), traffic around us continued to flow as people of all ages headed up to ski, ice skate and run around us (although we did have to help a few cars get moving again!).

We are constantly reminded that the norwegian culture believes in ‘Seeing the best in people’ allowing us to freely walk around the high performance facilities and happy to stop and help, even if our attempts to speak Norwegian are terrible! There is a real belief that they are all in this together and only together will things be done - not a bad ideology to adopt and clearly its working with their dominance of winter sports.

Follow our adventure and get involved by using the #NorwayVolSport or follow the members of the group on twitter (see below).

About the Study Tour
Delegates* from CSPs around the country, Association of Colleges and Sport England are exploring the practices of volunteering in Norway, speaking to key organisations and those directly volunteering. Funded by the Erasmus Plus programme, it will enable the group to develop their education and understanding of practice in volunteering; in order to help guide the sector in the UK. In return for the Norwegian hospitality we will also share our own experiences of sports development with the local officers, highlighting some of the key projects and programmes that members of the group have been working on.

*Laura Whitehead (Black Country BeActive Partnership), John Selby-Sly (Sport Nottinghamshire),
Lorna Leach (London Sport), Niall Judge (Active Gloucestershire), Adam Brougham (Tyne and Wear
Sport), Kieran Crombie (Herts Sports Partnership), Laura Danskin (Association of Collages) and Rachel
Waterman (Sport England)