| This year,
BARA in partnership with the Rugby Football
Union (RFU), have identified four areas
in which they will deliver a comprehensive
development programme targeting children
& young people from the South Asian
communities. The areas identified are Bradford,
Leeds, and Leicester & London. These
areas were chosen specifically because of
their large ethnic minority communities,
and because of the popularity of rugby among
the community members.
The principles of BARA’s development
programme are as follows:
Positive Messages
A powerpoint presentation will
be delivered using BARA players as role
models who have a positive influence, to
convey the benefits of being involved in
a sport like rugby. Local schools and the
wider community settings, such as mosques,
gurdwaras, temples, community centres etc
will be targeted. This will send a clear
message that Asians play and are involved
in sports like rugby.
Marketing & Promotional Resources
Posters, flyers, coaching manuals
and positive messages will be printed and
distributed in many different languages,
catering for the communities we are working
with. The aim is to include members of the
community who may otherwise be excluded
due to the language barrier. This also enforces
the idea that rugby will over come barriers
that exist.
Coaching in Schools
Qualified BARA coaches will mentor
the RFU community coaches and deliver in
schools along side them. The aim is to demonstrate
and display a working partnership to the
children & young people, as well as
the school teachers and members of the wider
community. A six week programme clustering
5 schools together will be followed, culminating
in a tournament at a central venue. A well
known personality that the children &
young people can relate to, will be invited
to give out certificates and prizes. The
objective of this exercise is to instruct
the RFU coaches on how to adapt their skills
to needs of the particular community. The
partnership will no doubt show unity, encourage
inclusion and a sense of belonging.
After school Clubs
Each school will be requested to
facilitate an after school club for the
children to continue their development of
rugby. This will continue for a further
six weeks and will allow the RFU coaches
to continue their adaptation to the needs
of the community, and strengthen the partnership
as mentioned in the above section.
Satellite Club
The satellite club is aimed at
the more adventurous children to further
develop their knowledge & skills of
rugby while continuing to have fun. The
club will be based at a central venue in
the heart of the community. This will enable
the children to feel safe, confident and
give them a sense of achievement.
Club Development
Local club coaches will be invited
to attend the satellite clubs and join in
the coaching activities. This will allow
them to have a better understanding &
awareness of the children they are working
with. It will also allow the coaches to
build a relationship of trust, confidence
& understanding with the children. An
open day at the local clubs will be arranged
for the children and community members to
view the facilities and become familiar
with the workings of the club.
Community Development
Parents, family members & key
members of the community will be invited
to attend the coaching sessions to observe,
take part and assist in the coaching sessions.
This will allow them to see for themselves
the children benefiting from the rugby developments
building self esteem, confidence, team spirit,
discipline and respect etc. The community
members will also be able to interact with
the coaches from the local clubs encouraging
mutual understanding, trust and confidence.
BARA will encourage the community members
to take ownership & engage with the
children to enable a sustained development
of rugby activities.
Link To Mainstream Clubs
The next stage from the satellite
club is to filter the children to local
clubs from the surrounding areas. The children
will be ready to progress to the next level
from a school/community setting, to a club
environment. At this point, with the community
and the clubs having come together, having
shared in the experience of this development
programme, we should have reached a level
of understanding and succeeded in breaking
down many of the barriers that exit.
Educational Workshops
To hence the understanding of the
development programme a number of workshops
aimed at the school teachers, local clubs,
rugby coaches and community members will
be facilitated based on the cultural &
religious awareness of the communities they
are working with. Running in parallel to
this will be workshops aimed at the minority
ethnic communities to promote the benefits
of participation in rugby in schools and
clubs.
Coach Education
To coincide with the coaching in
schools//clubs/satellite clubs, 20 BARA
players will be mentored and put through
their paces on the RFU level 1 coaching
course. This will provide 20 qualified coaches
who are from the minority ethnic background.
It will also allow the coaches to act as
positive role models who will be reflective
of the communities they are working in and
not least provide 20 more invaluable volunteers
from the minority ethnic background, that
the RFU can call upon.
MELA Development
In order to build on the encouraging
response to last years MELA tour, we aim
to implement the next stage of our development
strategy. This will involve having a BARA
stand incorporated into the “Roadshow”,
so that it can be seen clearly as a joint
initiative / partnership rather than working
as separate organisation. Information packs
about BARA will be handed out along with
posters and flyers of BARA’s current
and future activities, subscriptions to
newsletters and competitions, and BARA merchandise
to give away.
We aim to establish a more effective line
of communication with the Rugby Football
Union, local schools, communities and clubs
to raise awareness of the MELAs. This will
help to facilitate and improve interaction
with the South Asian communities, and allowing
them to advertise and promote their activities
within their locales.
We will implement a system to monitor numbers,
age groups, ethnicity, gender, any experience
in rugby, and other relevant information,
which will enable us to build a database
of vital information.
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