It’s International Women’s Day and with this year’s focus to “Press for Progress”, Sky Blues in the Community (SBitC) are celebrating the achievement of one particular female who has also recently achieved an accredited Sports Leadership Qualification through SBitC’s Accelerate programme.
Sandra is also a dedicated volunteer for our ‘In it Together’ project, supporting females to get active as part of our women’s running programme.
Accelerate is a network of 23 local organisations (including Sky Blues in the Community), is funded by the Big Lottery Fund and European Social Fund and managed by Coventry & Warwickshire CDA. Accelerate aims to provide opportunities to support individuals and remove barriers preventing them from entering work or self-employment.
Sky Blues in the Community offers Accelerate participants the opportunity to undertake a Level 1 Qualification in Sports Leadership alongside a variety of workshops in health & wellbeing, employability skills and literacy & numeracy.
Sandra (pictured collecting her certificate at half-time vs. Swindon Town) had previously worked as an Office Manager. However, with a strong passion for exercise and running, she decided to enrol onto the Accelerate programme to pursue a career change and take up a new opportunity.
Accelerate project participant, Sandra, told us: “The whole experience has boosted my confidence and helped me to tackle some of the doubts that have been holding me back!
"I feel more positive and motivated to work towards something that I am passionate about. I have great affirmation in my ability to achieve my goals! I now know how to evaluate situations, set achievable targets and adapt to situations better.
"My personal highlight was developing the confidence to deliver my own coaching session, which I had planned myself. I was so proud of myself being able to deliver this & how well it went – I was so motivated by the feedback I received afterwards.
"With the help of Accelerate’s Journey Guides, I have future goals to access more training opportunities to further develop my skills & attend business enterprise workshops to explore setting up my own coaching business.
"For now, I am continuing to volunteer as a Run Leader, putting my new Sports Leadership skills into practice with Sky Blues in the Community.”
For more information about the Accelerate project, please contact Sky Blues in the Community’s Training & Skills Officer, Andrew Hopcroft, via Email: andrew.hopcroft@ccfc.co.uk or Telephone: 024 7678 6349.
