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Axe Vale Netball Club (AVNC) was founded in 2015 by three mums with a shared love of netball and a mutual mission to expand sporting opportunities for women and girls in their local area. 

In its first year, the club attracted nearly 100 girls and women. They’ve since more than doubled their membership to a peak of over 200 members, aged 6-82, training and playing at their weekly sessions.  

The club started with three volunteer coaches. To keep pace with the demand for their activities, they’ve grown their volunteer base to include seven qualified coaches and 14 wider volunteers including parents, ex-members and children and young people.

The Buddle team caught up with AVNC to find out more about how they did this.

AVNC’s volunteers

For the first five years of AVNC, the club was managed and run by the same three founding volunteers.

They often sought support from friends and members’ parents but realised this wasn’t a sustainable way of recruiting and retaining the extra help they needed to match the demand for their activities. 

The founding volunteers were so busy keeping the club running that they had no time to encourage social activities among members and were unable to fully engage with parents, carers and wider members of their local community.

They knew they were missing out on potential volunteers and new members because of this. They also recognised that they weren’t fully able to take the time to understand the needs of their community and the networking and collaboration opportunities open to them. 

A girls' netball team huddle in a circle with their arms around each other.

What did they do?

Inspired by Buddle’s ‘task-based volunteering’ guidance, AVNC decided they needed to make a change. So, they set about a mission to build a more community-centred, community-run club.

They knew they couldn’t do this alone, so they decided to host an informal club event. They invited all 200 members, parents and carers to a social evening with food and drinks provided. 

AVNC openly shared their challenges and plans with the 50 attendees. They highlighted the pressures on their current volunteers, the ongoing need for a community club focussed on women and girls, the great relationships they’ve built with members and families and their ambition to become a Community Interest Company (CIC). 

The club provided paper and pens to everyone in the room and ask a series of questions designed to spark conversation. These included:
 

What do you like about the AVNC community?
What skills do you have that could support us?
What time do you have that you could commit to the club?
What do community relationships mean to you?

The evening was focussed on listening to their community’s voices, understanding member motivations and outlining the club’s support needs in the interest helping them to grow their volunteer base.

Using Buddle’s support on volunteer recruitment and retention and the questions above, AVNC talked to those in attendance to identify their skillsets and work out how they could match up with the tasks required to run and grow the club.

Two girls compete in a game of netball outdoors, wearing GK and GS vests.

What was the outcome?

Following the event, AVNC changed its name to Axe Vale Netball Community. This was to ensure ‘community’ is the first thing people see and experience when getting involved with the organisation.

They recognise that positive values and culture can go a long way towards encouraging people to get involved or volunteer in community organisations. 

Beyond just a name change, AVNC saw increased commitment to help out and volunteer more. Members’ parents and carers understood the ask and felt more comfortable with the flexible opportunities available through a task-based approach. The club shared some examples of what happened next:

  • A mum at the club had experience working on funding bids from her day job; she’s since supported the club with bid writing and has applied to multiple local funds on their behalf. 
     
  • One parent works as a journalist. They’ve now been involved in writing articles on the club to promote their offer in the local papers.
     
  • A member’s guardian didn’t have any spare time to go on a coaching course themselves so donated the money to help ensure someone with the time could get trained up.
     
  • A dad wanted to get involved but was unsure if he had any relevant skills. He’s now involved weekly by collecting and washing the bibs and kits after game days.
     
  • A parent who had a connection with the local martial arts club has worked with their club to secure use of their minibus to help children and young people who struggle to get to match days.
     
  • A number of the parents spoke about the evening with their heads of sport at local schools – attendance at the club climbed after this.
     
  • One parent worked at a Fortune 500 company and offered their spare time to write the club a business plan.
     
  • A few parents shared volunteering opportunities with their families – one young person has since started their coaching qualification and a further two are on umpiring courses.

AVNC continue to prioritise the community voice at their club. In doing so they’re able to continue to meet member and club needs by encourage new members, parents and carers to take on small tasks that will maintain the hard work and quality netball sessions AVNC deliver.

Club challenges

Despite the initial success of the community evening, AVNC still face challenges like any other club. They’ve struggled with:

  • Competing priorities and limited spare time for volunteers, even after committing their support at the community evening.
     
  • Parents and carers who volunteer leaving the club when their children move on.
     
  • The cost and limitations of their venue – the court belongs to the local school, who often require the site for parents evenings and exams, making training inconsistent.
     
  • The common life stages of a volunteer – having an influx at a young age and then again later in life, with a big gap in the middle where consistency and expertise is most required to have a sustainable volunteering model.
     
  • Reduced participation levels, with many young people dropping out or choosing other sports and fewer parents and carers therefore being available for volunteering roles. 

A girl aims to shoot a netball on an outdoor court, with two other girls queuing behind her to do the same.

Plans for the future

The list above highlights some of the benefits AVNC experienced as a result of their community engagement event.

While their volunteer recruitment had some successes and still presents some challenges, the club were successful at growing their roots into the community and its networks. 

Forging these connections is a great way to start place-based working and can be a good way of securing new relationships with businesses, charities and social organisations, which in turn could lead to more funding or sponsorship opportunities, sustained promotion through schools and increased wellbeing of the members, volunteers and communities involved. 

“We’ve got a team… comprised of a farmer’s wife, a doctor, nurse, journalist, stay-at-home mum, hairdresser, cheesemaker, police officer, teaching assistant, clinical operations manager and software architect. How and where else in the world would you gather such a group together but, through netball, we have made a new cross-sectional community!”

- AVNC

Top tips from AVNC

Look for passionate people. They don’t need to be experts; they just need to be enthusiastic.
Communicate. Talk to people all the time – make sure you have people standing on the sidelines and by the club door to chat and find commonalities.
Make jobs small and obtainable so people feel able to contribute. A volunteering role doesn’t have to have specific rules and boundaries.
Know your policies and legal requirements so you can bring new people in safely and effectively.
Everyone has something to offer and a talent to share; be ready to listen and help them find it.

Find out more

For more information on volunteer recruitment, retention and positive experiences explore our guidance on getting help from people and our other case study on Barton Inclusive FC.