Active Dorset

Another great day delivering the Dorset School Games Primary and Secondary Watersports festival in partnership with Rockley Watersports at Poole Park.

The Dorset School Games aims to deliver against the five School Games outcomes, and will use local insight, youth voice, co-creation, and collaboration to position tackling inequalities at the forefront of our events, activities, and competitions.

Positive experiences at an early age help build the foundations for an active life. If children and young people have experiences that feel fun, positive and give them a sense of confidence, they’re more likely to want to be active in the future.

Inclusive sport starts with welcoming environments. Sport Welfare Officers help to create welcoming and inclusive clubs for everyone where everyone feels safe and welcome — regardless of age, background, or ability.

Join us for this weeks virtual, or in person webinars, including LGBTQ+ inclusion and the importance of youth voice 🔽

🔗 Sign up today. See link in comments!

Cycling is a great low impact form of movement, which can help to improve children's overall health and wellbeing. Its good for their physical health, and also helps with co-ordination, balance and posture.

However not everyone has equal access to cycling. Where you live, go to school or health conditions can all effect the opportunities for children and young people to move more on a bike.

We recently hosted the first Dorset School Games Wheels Festival, a day aimed at primary school students who typically haven't represented their school in the more traditional team or individual sports, aiming to encourage them to be more active while providing a chance to try new activities in a fun, friendly, and supportive setting.

The creation of the event was based on the motivations and feedback of the young people from the Youth Voice we had previously collected from schools and educational settings.

Thanks to all of the schools and local partners that made the day so successful!

Pedall - New Forest Inclusive Cycling | BCP Council | Walk Wheel Cycle Trust | Bikeability

Primary Wheels Festival 2026 Case study video, telling the story of the first Dorset School Game...

Volunteers are the heart and soul of community sport

Walk into any sports club, community centre, or event and practically everyone you meet will be a volunteer. Whether it's the person who welcomes you when you arrive, who encourages you to get involved, or who is 'behind the scenes' to keep everything going.

We know how important their time is to others, but what’s in it for them?

Research shows that people who volunteer have higher self-esteem and emotional wellbeing, and it can be a great way to acquire new skills or to meet new people.


Slades Park | Redlands Leisure & Community Park

😁 When everyone at your club feels safe, supported and welcome, they enjoy sport more — and they keep coming back.

Sport Welfare Officers offer free support for every club in England — helping everyone to look their after athletes and participants at clubs, whatever their age or background.

Support includes:

👉🏼Practical advice and support
👉🏼Easy to use safeguarding and welfare tools and resources
👉🏼Help to build a strong welfare culture in your club
👉🏼Opportunities to learn, share ideas, and improve safeguarding practice together

✉️ Contact Dorset's Sport Welfare Officer James Ballard for more information on the support offered, or search 'Sport Welfare Officer Network' online.

Volunteers Week!

This week we want to say a huge THANK YOU to all our volunteers, past and present, who are pivotal to the ongoing success of our Active Dorset CIO venues at Slades Park and Redlands Leisure & Community Park!

Volunteering helps everyone feel they belong. Whether you’re new to the area or have always lived there, joining a community project as a volunteer helps to connect you to others and builds new relationships. 🌍

Volunteering, especially in busy community spaces like ours, can gently increase your physical activity and help you stay mobile too! 💪

Volunteers are the heart and soul of community sport. If you are a club or organisation that needs support in finding or recruiting volunteers, search Buddle online, or see the link in the comments 🔽

Volunteers make a vital contribution to community sport. Sport England's Active Lives Adult Survey shows that a total of 6.2 million adults give their time at least twice a year to help make sport and physical activity happen.

With that in mind, Sport England have compiled a series of questions and answers designed to help your organisation or project achieve its goals while creating a more enjoyable, meaningful volunteering experience for all.

The comprehensive list of questions are split into seven separate sections: getting started, volunteering and the law, safeguarding & health and safety, diversity, support, planning and organising, and dealing with issues. 🔽

👆🏼 https://www.sportengland.org/guidance-and-support/volunteering-qa



Redlands Leisure & Community Park | Slades Park

This month sees the start of the South West Club Welfare Festival. A month full of confidence building workshops, webinars, interactive sessions, and training, all about building confidence around safeguarding, welfare and wellbeing.

Working together, Active Partnerships, Sport Welfare Officers and NGBs help clubs create safe, welcoming and inclusive environments for everyone who takes part — and since 2024, they've supported more than 5,000 clubs across England.

Club Welfare Festival workshops throughout the month include 🔽

👉🏼 Active Bystander
👉🏼 Introduction to trauma informed practice
👉🏼 LADO Awareness
👉🏼 Safeguarding scenarios

🖋️Register your interest: https://lnkd.in/e9CTY7b7

This years Learning at Work week theme is Many ways to learn. The theme explores the different ways we can learn and build skills as we go, and how we can create inclusive opportunities for lifelong learning that benefit personal, professional and work lives.

We have a variety of learning opportunities available for health and community organisations. From virtual training, in person delivery, toolkits and resources, we have different ways of learning to suit all styles and needs.

These can help professionals to gain knowledge, skills and confidence to promote physical activity within their role to support people to be more active.

Take a look at our training opportunities ➡️ www.activedorset.org/training-hub