Sports Hall Co-Ordinator – Sulaimaan Samuel

Review Of Our Aims

• To co-ordinate, promote and deliver a programme of affordable local sport / physical activities for men, women, children and the elderly / old to fully participate and benefit the women, children and men residing in Sparkbrook and its surrounding areas;

• To design, oversee and resource a programme of after school, evening, weekend and holiday activities.

The Slater Sports Hall

The construction of the Slater Sports Hall in Sparkbrook was completed at the beginning of April 2005. The building is owned by Conway Primary School and Local Leagues Ltd agreed to manage the facility on behalf of Conway School and to develop a programme of sporting and physical activities to engage all members of the community.

Promoting / Advertising

Local Leagues promoted the Slater Sports Hall and the new opportunities it offered the Sparkbrook community in July 2005.

Our focus has been local primary schools and mosques. We attended school assemblies and delivered short presentations (5 minutes) promoting the sports hall and our activities to the children and their teachers who were all very enthusiastic.

By listening to the cultural, social and religious needs and requirements of the community, Local Leagues developed an inclusive programme of activities that has allowed all members of the community to participate.

We have gained the confidence and trust of parents, local schools and mosques with whom we now share a common goal – “creating new opportunities for the whole community”.

Local shops, businesses and mosques have all wanted to play their part in supporting the work of Local Leagues by offering to display our posters and distribute our leaflets.

Review Of ‘Summer Fun’ – 2005

The Summer Fun programme was created by Local Leagues to satisfy Sparkbrook’s increasing need for safe, affordable, local sports activities. It aimed to provide a rare opportunity for 150 primary school children living within Sparkbrook to participate in sports activities that were professionally coached and properly resourced 8 hours per day during the holiday period and to promote positive citizenship through sports.

We established a good working relationship and common goals with all the local schools and mosques and as a result they were very keen to help us in any way possible. They distributed hundreds of our leaflets to their pupils and parents and display our posters in the most prominent places i.e. entrances, exits and windows.

Local shops and businesses also gave support to Local Leagues, offering to promote our summer activities by distributing leaflets to their customer and displayed our Posters in their windows.

Coaching Staff

It has long been an ambition of Local Leagues to increase the number of qualified female coaches it employs and the Summer Fun programme gave us an opportunity to do so. Local Leagues specifically employed three additional female coaches of Asian and African / Caribbean origin to plan, deliver and manage the girl’s activities.

They visited all the local mosques and also delivered short presentations (5-10 minutes) promoting the summer activities of Local Leagues to the Imams, teachers and children and especially encouraged the girls to attend. They too were very successful in establishing a working partnership with all the local mosques who distributed our leaflets to all their children, parents and users and displayed our colourful Local Leagues posters on their notice boards and in their windows.