The delivery of this award over the last 12 months in Gloucestershire has been very successful with around 100 new Young Leaders qualified across the County. These courses have been delivered in a number of ways. They have either been delivered during the cricket season at a club or durning the Spring at school. Below you will find a case study of a successful way of delivering the Young Leaders course:

County Board	Gloucestershire Cricket Board
Club / District / School	Cam CC
Number of young people involved	18 Cam Players also opened it up to 4 Frocester players to join us.
Age range	14-17 years
Month of project	March
Funding method	Club paid half of their course costs, students families paid rest
Club Mark Status	Not Registered Registered Accredited
Author and Title	Alison Dixon Coach

Background to the project:

• Cam CC is a well established village club serving a population of about 15,000 including some significant areas of relative disadvantage. We run five senior men’s teams (40 members) and one senior women’s team (18 members). We are based at Cam Sports Club and also play at Dursley Rugby Club (Stinchcombe). Our forward thinking Chairman has led the club’s recent progress to Club Mark and Focus Club status.
• Our Youth Cricket Section has grown significantly over 10 years so that we now provide cricket coaching and competitive fixtures for over 220 young cricketers from U7 to U17 in 18 different teams; seven in the Stroud District League; one in the Bristol League and three in the new County Longer Leagues. Our youngest cricketers and Chance to Shine Girls play in friendly festivals.
• In five years, our coach development at Cam CC has included nine Level Ones and four Level Two qualifications (five by women.)
• We believed that some of our youth section were also ready and keen to take on coaching responsibilities and so this Spring ‘11 Cam CC contacted the GCB and Rednock School to combine to provide a Young Leader Course for our younger cricketers. From the 22 students taking part in the course, 18 were Cam CC members all keen to get involved.

What were the aims of the project? Why was the project needed n your club? 

Cam CC is a popular and expanding cricket club where children as young as 5 years old are welcome and encouraged. Our popularity has meant that over the past few years we have had to split age groups and provision to maximize participation and provide quality coaching for all. Last year was also the start of our Chance to Shine project and this led to further sessions to provide Girls only age group training.

This has in turn led to many of our older Youth cricketers volunteering, supporting and assisting coaching sessions and there was obviously a desire for more to do so. Therefore, it was felt that the club should offer to help provide a quality training opportunity to as many Youth members as possible to enable them to help effectively and take on responsibilities if wanted and required.
(Piture right: Young Leaders Finn Dixon & Jake Dolbear leading a catching activing on a Young Cricketres activity day).

What impact will it have on your club?

The impact on Cam CC has been extremely significant Firstly, we are able to support all our training sessions (girls and mixed) with at least 4 Young Leaders per session giving our younger cricketers more ‘hands on’ attention and support. Three of our Young Leaders have taken on team manager roles in the u11 and 13 age groups and have proved to be very effective and popular with the younger members providing excellent role models.As a group, the Young Leaders organized a working party at Easter to paint and repair the club house all working tirelessly from 9-4pm before their own training sessions began and took great pride in their results.

Further more all the Young Leaders supported a Junior Club Day from 9:30am to 3:30pm where children from the ages of 5 – 13yrs were provided with a range of cricketing activities where the coaches ‘looked on’ and the Leaders ran each of the activities. The children and parents response to the day was extremely positive and are very keen to do it again.  One Young Leader in particular regularly assisted and supported the ground maintenance at the club by mowing, rolling and marking the pitches.

To finish the season a group of the Young Leaders formed a committee and organized a very successful U17 sponsored sixes competition at the club and raised a total of £500 to go to our Net fund. The original day was unfortunately rained off and yet this did not deter them and they rearrange the tournament.

As a group they have become a very strong and reliable unit and enjoy each others company. They have relished the opportunities the club has offered them in terms of responsibilities and opportunities this season as well as initiating their own projects and activities and I know they will continue to be very active in the club.

What support do you required from the GCB and its partners in the:

Immediate future
We have had several requests for the older Young Leaders to take the UKCC1. Although the club have offered to contribute to the costs it would be helpful if the GCB was able to offer the course at a further reduce rate or support financially in some way. Many are saying that with the costs of the Safe guarding and First Aid courses as well it makes it seem an unachievable goal for them at this stage as most are not working and at school.

• To provide a Young Leaders Course each year in conjunction with our local secondary school, Rednock.

Medium Term
To encourage our Young Leaders to continue on the coaching structure and take the UKCC1 course and assist more directly in the coaching of our youngsters.

Long Term
To see some of our Young Leadrers taking theri UKCC Level 2 courses once they have some further experience from within the club.

(Picture above: Charlotte Pretty managing Cam CC U11 gils at the South West Finals)

The young leaders however have not just been of great assistance with coaching they have also had a impact off the field: