Argyll & Bute Orienteering Partnership
Background
Argyll & Bute is the second biggest geographical region of Scotland. The region stretches all the way from Loch Lomond in the east to Rannoch Moor and Appin in the north, to the Mull of Kintyre and Bute in the south and to the islands of Tiree, Coll, Islay, Jura and Mull in the west. There are only three significant centres of population in the predominately rural region- Helensburgh, Dunoon and Oban.
With the break up of the old Strathclyde Region in 1996, Argyll & Bute lost any outdoor sports development and outdoor education provision. That was until funding from the Big Lottery enabled Argyll & Bute Council to form “Stramash”, a project aimed at encouraging young people to become active and stay active.
One year ago Stramash and EckO (the region’s only orienteering club) got together and started speaking to each other. Both agreed that the region has ideal terrain for orienteering and that orienteering is a sport that can encourage people to become active and to go out into their local environment. And so the Argyll & Bute Orienteering Partnership (ABOP) was formed.
Funding
Although Stramash was able to bring some funding to ABOP, further funding sources were looked into. An application was made to the Scottish Executive’s Rural Challenge Fund and after much form filling and scary interviews, ABOP was awarded a match funding grant.
Stramash funding, funding in kind from EckO and Rural Challenge funding has amounted to £100, 000 for the development of orienteering in Argyll & Bute over two years. That sort of funding doesn’t come along everyday!
Partnership Working
Stramash is very aware that the club needs to be central to any development within the region. The club will play a major part in the sustainability of the project. The success of ABOP is undoubtedly due to the close working of all those involved- EckO, Stramash, Active Schools team, Forestry Commission and schools.
What ABOP means to EckO
Due to the size of the club, funds in the past have been measured in tens of pounds rather than thousands. This limited the ability to have a large map portfolio or pay for advertising. There is now an extensive mapping program that will produce at least 10 new maps this year alone, and regular advertising.
Close co-ordination with the active schools team, has increased participation by youngsters. They also provide a few days notice of the numbers that may appear.
EckO now owns a colour laser printer; so all maps are pre-printed with the course and control descriptions. This makes life so much easier and quicker at the start. The use of the recently acquired SPORTident kit for punching and printing splits, (the kids love this), also allows the use of small areas more effectively.
This injection of resources will allow EckO to provide quality orienteering to the community for some years to come.
Programme
“Sustainability, sustainability, sustainability,” somebody famous must have said that at some point! Sustainable development has been central to ABOP right from the word go. The programme has been put together with reference to the SOA development plan. The key features of the programme are:
- Mapping of all school grounds in the region (96 schools)
- Mapping of local areas where schools/communities can progress on to
- Mapping/remapping of areas suitable for national competitions
- Delivery of Level 1 and 2 Coach courses- Active Schools team, at least one teacher from every school in the region and members of local communities
- Issuing of Community Packs, one pack will be based in every school- packs contain everything necessary to teach orienteering and run courses
- Establish a network of permanent courses across the region built and maintained by the Forestry Commission
- Delivery the new BOF Young Leaders Award across the region
- Develop inter-school competitions and leagues
- Establish four area festivals within the region
- Establish one regional festival
- Develop a residential training course for young people with potential from the region
- Encourage participation in Scottish Schools and inter-regional events
- Increase participation at club events by increasing the number of events, holding the events in more widespread locations, promoting the events in schools and local papers, providing transport to events
The Future
Already ABOP is making an impact with a very evident increase in interest in orienteering in the region and with the largest numbers ever to take part in an EckO evening series. Only time will tell what the impact will be as the project begins to be rolled out across the whole region. The hope of all the partners is that we will see a long term significant impact on numbers taking part in orienteering in Argyll & Bute. ABOP will give a report back on the project in a years time.
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