Table Tennis England’s Young Ambassador programme is entering its third year and looking to build on the 38 Ambassadors and 21 mentors, from 20 PremierClubs, who have signed up in the first two years.

The programme has enabled young people aged 14 to 25 to have a voice and to be recognised and heard within their clubs, as well as helping clubs to expand their workforces and attract new members.

Some of the areas of volunteering that our Young Ambassadors have been involved in include supporting club coaching sessions, particularly the TT Kidz programme and BE TT sessions, along with mentoring new young players, assisting with tournaments and umpiring, helping with open days and becoming committee members.

All of the roles which the Young Ambassadors have been involved with have massively helped the clubs but also helped the young people to develop their confidence, gain new experiences, meet new people, improve their communication skills, learn about planning and time management, organisation, being adaptive and flexible to the situation when coaching and being mentored by their club’s head coach.

Table Tennis England recognise and value the volunteering the Young Ambassadors carry out, which is why the programme rewards them for the hours they complete with the following incentives.

• 10 hours: £95 bursary for a UKCC Level 1 Coaching course or full bursary for a Level 1 Umpire course or TTKidz Activator course
• 30 hours: TTYA sport shirt
• 50 hours: TTYA hoodie and special recognition from Table Tennis England
• For each level, Young Ambassadors will also receive a Table Tennis England certificate.

So far, seven Young Ambassadors have completed their Level 1 Coaching qualification, with 18 more registering to take the qualification in the near future.

Four Young Ambassadors have completed the TTKidz Activator Course, which then provides them with an opportunity to continue to support and deliver TT Kidz sessions within their clubs. Two Young Ambassadors have also completed their Level 1 Umpire course, the first step towards enabling them to be involved on the world stage, umpiring at the Commonwealth Games.

These two videos demonstrate some of the work carried out by some of our Young Ambassadors in 2019/20:

 Sophie Storey (Weymouth & District Table Tennis League)

 

An overview of the work our Young Ambassadors are involved with at their clubs

To be eligible for the 2020/21 programme, Young Ambassadors must be aged 14 to 25. Clubs must assign a Volunteer Mentor to support the Young Ambassador(s). All Mentors will be required to have an up-to-date DBS check in place that has been completed through Table Tennis England within the last three years, and adhere to our safeguarding guidelines (safeguarding information can be found on our website by clicking here). DBS checks must be updated once every three years and if your DBS check expires whilst you are a mentor, you will be required to update this accordingly.

Clubs which are interested in signing up Young Ambassadors for the 20/21 programme can click here for more information and to fill in the online Register Your Interest form.