How Volunteers Contribute to Sport
SPARC would like to say a huge thanks to the half a million Kiwis who do a ton of tough jobs in sport and recreation every week, just for the love of it.
There are 41,000 people paid to work in sport in New Zealand, but 500,000 people working unpaid.
Volunteers are incredibly important at every level. Without grassroots helpers, sport simply wouldn’t happen - and players could never advance to world-class level.
What do volunteers do?
Volunteers are:
- coaches
- umpires
- referees
- judges
- scorers
- starters
and other officials.
Volunteers also include the people who:
- wash the uniforms
- transport the team
- cut the oranges
- fill the water bottles
- clean the clubrooms
and give their time in other ways.
Where you can find out more
Are you a volunteer?
Here are some resources which may help you as a volunteer:
Check out the following links:
www.dsr.wa.gov.au
This is the website of the Department of Sport and Recreation in Western Australia. Its officials section has some clear and easy to read info-sheets for sports officials and their clubs on recruiting and retaining officials and dealing with harassment of sports officials.
www.acc.co.nz
Sports officials get injured too! Check out ACC’s Injury Prevention section for information on the most common sporting injuries and great advice on how to avoid getting injured in the first place.
www.volunteeringnz.org.nz
This website contains a huge array of information covering all things volunteering. There are some interesting articles on which government policies are impacting on volunteers in New Zealand, plus further useful links.
Updated | 12 Aug 2008.
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