Athletics Community Days. Bringing the Olympic celebrations to life in Communities across London

What is the ‘Are you ready?’ campaign? The ‘Are you ready?’ campaign was launched with a year to go until London 2012, and ever since has been working alongside the England Athletics Volunteer. Initiative to work with clubs to ensure they are ready to deliver a lasting legacy.
The campaign is striving to help clubs tackle the challenges of the anticipated increased demand in Athletics, and to take advantage of the biggest shop window our sport has ever seen!
As part of counting down to the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the campaign invited clubs across the country to host ‘Try Athletics’ events to mark 100 days to go. During the week of 18 April 2012, 190 events were hosted by clubs which saw thousands of participants and volunteers get involved in Athletics.
Now, with the Games just months away, it’s time to follow up this success and invite you to host the second ‘Are you ready?’ event.
 

12-29 August 2012 – Athletics Community Day
Your club is invited to host an Athletics Community Day. Hosting an event is the chance for your club to become the heart of the local community during one of the most exciting times our sport has ever seen. These weeks between the Olympic and Paralympic Games are the perfect chance for your club to ensure you can deliver a lasting legacy by engaging your community.
A Community Day will allow your club to give everyone, of all ages, the chance to try some athletics – but also have fun and socialise. The events will show people what sort of athletics they can get involved in, while also showing them the fun, social, community side of athletics. This event is not just about new members but can
bring the whole club together.

Community days could feature:

• Olympic themed challenges
• BBQs and refreshments
• Fun sport day races
• Parent and child races
• Have a go sessions
• Fundraising and games
• Can your club beat Mo Farah’s 10,000m time as a group?
• Link with other sport clubs
• Bouncy Castles
• Tug of War

A Community Day can involve a range of activities that shows
off all aspects of your club and engages the whole community.

What are the benefits of hosting a Community Day?
There are a number of benefits to hosting an Athletics Community Day, in addition to this being a one off opportunity to take advantage of the increased exposure and interest generated by the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Some of the benefits to hosting a Community Day include:

• Recruit more volunteers from the community and your current membership
• Get involved with a tangible aspect of the national ‘Are you ready?’ campaign and be linked with other national campaigns such as ‘Join in Local Sport’
• Recruit more members
• Bring your whole club together
• Receive hard copy resources from England Athletics and have access to online resources
• Be part of a national marketing campaign, giving your club and event extra exposure and a higher profile
• Have your event promoted along with other community days by the BBC and Channel 4 throughout the Olympics
• Use this event and campaign to help support your other club and network goals of volunteer, coach and athlete recruitment
• Raise some money through fundraising or sponsored races
• It will be a fun event for the community and your current members
• Have flexibility in how to run your event. You will receive ideas and information on how to format your event but it is your event to decide how you want to run it
• Have the chance to feature in England Athletics’ media coverage
• Make your club a bigger part of the community
• Engage parents of junior members

And finally, make sure YOUR CLUB IS READY to deliver a legacy and use this event as a springboard for future development!
...and some extra rewards and a prize draw

All clubs that host an event will receive:

• A 20% discount for Eveque equipment, including landing areas
• Athletics Weekly discount for all host club’s volunteers - get the first three copies free and enjoy a free digital subscription with any magazine subscription. Every time a member subscribes, the club will receive £5. £1 off each Athletics Weekly Series bookazine
• A certificate to celebrate your involvement
• All host clubs will be entered into a draw for: Sunwise sunglasses
• Four tickets to England Athletics Hall of Fame and Volunteer Awards Evening
• Have an England Athletics communication team member attend your event and feature in follow up media.

What support will England Athletics provide?
England Athletics will be supporting clubs to host and promote their
Athletics Community Days. A number of resources will be available for clubs to use, both hard copies and downloadable. Resources, some of which will be sent to your club as part of a welcome pack, will include posters, template press release, a host club guide, options for how to format your event and more. In addition to supporting clubs with materials, England Athletics will be promoting all Community Days through various communications, with partners such as County Sport Partnerships and through social media.