Applied Coaching Research Journal Volume 1 | Page 33

APPLIED COACHING RESEARCH JOURNAL 2018, Vol. 1 Conclusions Overall, the project objective to develop new, innovative delivery methods that gave participants the appropriate skills and tools to start delivering physical activities in their communities was achieved. Partners were instrumental in providing support to participants and the project’s sustainability relies on partners’ capacity to support and retain the workforce. The partners involved highly valued the work and were keen for it to continue. The project identified an approach to recruiting, training and supporting a new, more diverse, workforce mainly though partnership working. It has developed a training package that offers a more informal way into coaching physical activity. In addition, it established a community-based programme that targets mums to become more active. The early findings from this project are very promising. Feedback from both partners and participants were extremely positive and the data shows that two-thirds of START participants became more physical active as a result of the training. However, due to the small numbers participating in the project (c70), as well as the limitations of the evaluation, the results should be treated with some caution. The approach to recruiting the workforce relied on partnership working with organisations that had positive engagement with the targeted communities. Partners played a key role in facilitating the training, thereby creating an easier route into the coaching. Acknowledgement This article is based on an Evaluation of A Person Like Me, completed by Dr Ludvigsen of Ludvigsen McMachon on behalf of Sport Nottinghamshire in September 2017. The project developed a creative and practical training offer that upskilled participants from hard to reach groups to start delivering physical activity in their communities. It used a person-centred approach and built on participants’ own experiences and aspirations. References 1  https://www.sportengland.org/media/10629/sport- england-towards-an-active-nation.pdf 2 https://www.sportengland.org/media/11317/ coaching-in-an-active-nation_the-coaching-plan- for-england.pdf The project worked with underrepresented groups from a range of socioeconomic backgrounds. Over half of those on the START programme were female and a quarter had a disability. Contact Pete Forster – [email protected] 33