Sports Buddy – Glasgow

Aberlour Scotland's Children's Charity
VO105383

Help a young person discover confidence and fun through sport
Do you enjoy sports and being active? Would you like to use your time to help a child in your community build confidence, try new activities and have fun?
Aberlour is looking for Volunteer Sports Buddies across Glasgow to spend time with a child taking part in fun activities in the local community. By sharing your interest in sport, you can help a young person build confidence, develop new skills and feel supported by a positive adult role model.
As a Sports Buddy, you’ll meet with a child to take part in activities that you both enjoy – this might include football, basketball, tennis, badminton, dancing, or trying something completely new together!
The focus is on having fun, building trust and encouraging participation in a relaxed and supportive way.
What will I be doing?
• Spending regular one-to-one time to build a positive and trusting relationship.
• Taking part in fun, child-led activities & introducing new experiences to try
• Encouraging participation in activities to build confidence
• Being there as a trusted adult they can talk to and help develop communication skills
• Being a consistent figure in the child’s life to support with life transitions, like moving school for example.
What will I gain from the role?
• A sense of satisfaction from helping to make a lasting difference in a child’s life.
• valuable experience in supporting children and young people.
• Receive training, guidance, and ongoing support.

Experience required

What skills can I bring to this role?
You don’t need formal qualifications— we want to hear from you if you have patience, understanding, and the desire to help a child thrive. You’ll benefit from having:
• A genuine interest in the wellbeing of children and families
• An interest in sports and active past times
• Experience (formal or informal) of supporting children or young people
• A non-judgemental, empathetic approach
• Good listening and communication skills
• Respect for confidentiality and clear professional boundaries
What qualities do I need?
• Positive, encouraging, empathetic
• Patient, reliable, and understanding.
• Open-minded, non-judgemental, and respectful.
• Ability to act with integrity and maintain confidentiality.
• committed to making a consistent contribution.

Travel details

This opportunity is available across multiple areas in Glasgow.

Travel expenses

Activities will be paid for by Aberlour, and we will reimburse you for travel expenses to and from the volunteering activities.

I want to volunteer

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Support

Training details

• Training so that you feel confident to start your role
• Ongoing supervision, guidance, and support from our experienced staff team. You will always have someone available that you can contact to offer support while you are on your activities, and you won’t be left to deal with challenges on your own.

Restrictions

Minimum age: 18

You must be at least 18 years old to volunteer in this role.
As this involves regulated work with children, successful applicants will be asked to join the PVG Scheme (Protecting Vulnerable Groups). Two satisfactory references are required.

Availability

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Frequency & commitment

How often will I be volunteering? This is a flexible volunteering opportunity designed to fit around your schedule. You might meet once a week, or every two weeks. However often you meet, your time and encouragement can make a lasting difference to a young person’s life. How long does the volunteering opportunity run for? Usually, sports buddies are matched with a young person for around 6 months. This means for example if you started in April, you would likely meet with the young person until October, and if you did activities together every fortnight you would have done around 12 sports activities in total together.