Applied Coaching Research Journal Volume 1 | Page 30

APPLIED COACHING RESEARCH JOURNAL 2018, Vol. 1
The START training programme: a leadership-
development programme, focused specifically on
participants and their experiences. The programme
utilised participants’ own experiences of the things
they enjoy and the people who inspire them to
tease out what they think are key values and skills,
which could then be related back to leadership and
coaching. New training material was developed and
tested over a six-month period with over 75 people
from a range of different settings, such as coach
apprentices, county leadership academy students
and sports development staff.
The Mums’ Movement: a training programme
targeting women with children in Ashfield was
developed due to lack of opportunities specifically
for women. The programme was based on the
principle that women are recruited as mentors
or champions and together organise events or
activities that they, and other women in their
community or network, want to get involved with.
The emphasis was on being social, friendly and
having fun, while getting active. The evaluation
An external, independent evaluation of A
Person Like Me was commissioned by Sport
Nottinghamshire and conducted by Ludvigsen
McMachon. The evaluation had the following
objectives:
• To identify and share the lessons learned from
developing the project
• To assess the impact of the project on its
beneficiaries.
Three champions were recruited in 2017 and they
organised and delivered weekly family activity
sessions in two local parks during the school
holidays. The women received training from the
county cricket club on delivering a version of
cricket to children and families. The champions
also promoted the Mums’ Movement “Survive
the Summer” campaign targeting 500 families,
encouraging parents to pledge to reduce children’s
screen time in the summer holidays using activities
and equipment provided. The evaluation involved interviews with key
internal stakeholders (Sport Nottinghamshire
and Sport England), interviews with partner
organisations, pre- and post-participant surveys,
focus groups with participants, observation of
training sessions and data analysis.
Both programmes targeted three geographical areas
of Nottinghamshire (City of Nottingham, Ashfield
and Mansfield). These areas were chosen due to
their higher levels of socioeconomic deprivation and
lower levels of physical activity.
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The START training programme required participants
to attend sessions in their free time, outside of
college and work. Partner organisations reported
that the training was very well attended and
participants showed a commitment to attend,
not usually shown on other courses. START was
delivered to three different groups as part of a
10-week leadership academy course, run on a
weekly basis with sessions lasting between 1–1½
hours each. Overall, 66 people participated in the
programme over the full duration of the project.
The overall approach to the evaluation was one
of an appreciative inquiry, a collaborative method
of engaging par