WSF East Midlands Region.

News and events

Best Practice Evening

Thursday 10th of November 2005 saw WSF East Midlands hold their "Best Practice Evening" at Loughborough University.

The evening was an interactive show case event, to highlight the abundance of work involving the participation of women and girls in sport being done here in the region. The evening was hailed as a great success and a brilliant starting point for us all to work together. The evening kicked off with a WSF national and Sport England update. The WSF East Midlands website was then showcased to highlight how we can interact together to pool resources. Presentations then followed from partnership groups. Nottinghamshire Equality Partnership set the stage for equity and the importance of real inclusion and working together. Then followed some highly successful work in progress practices from the Leicester Racial Equality Group. The presentations were then brought to a close by a truly inspirational presentation from the English Federation for Disability Sport and Fiona Neale. The evening was closed with a question and answer panel consisting of the guest presenters.

Event evaluation document (Microsoft Word document opens in new window)

WSF East Midlands Region "Best Practice" page.

Inspire Innovate and Influence Equity Awareness session

We think it is important to provide an inclusive approach to working, strengthening structures within the East Midlands and to celebrate the excellent work with women and girls in sport that is often not widely publicised. Therefore the WSF East Midlands Group are hosting an evening awareness session regarding the exciting work we are currently carrying out in the Region along with the work of the other equity Organisations focusing on the work they do around women and girls.
Click here to access the booking information (MS Word Document)

Inspire, Innovate and Influence conference a huge success.

'Truly inspirational', 'the best conference that I have ever been to', just two of the comments received from delegates following the recent WSF conference at Trent Bridge, Notts.

The venue was at maximum capacity with the 200 delegates brought up to speed with all things 'WSF' by acting Chief Executive, Vanessa Brown, before being treated to a 'world tour' by Anita White, International Advisor to the International Working Group on Women and Sport.

Sue Campbell, Chief Executive of the Youth Sports Trust focused on things a little bit closer to home with her up-beat and motivational presentation 'Improving Opportunities for Women and Girls in Sport'.

Experts in the fields of Long Term Athlete Development, Sport Psychology, Elite Training and Health shared their expertise with delegates whilst Gaynor Nash and Zena Unitt led interactive workshops highlighting examples of good practice in the local community and education.

The highlight of the day for many people came post lunch in the form of the sports panel question time. Wonderfully hosted by Jo Mould, BBC Radio Presenter, panel guests from the worlds of Super Bike Racing, Football, Hockey, Athletics and Water-Polo were quite simply awe inspiring. These athletes and coaches shared their own very personal experiences, their sources of inspiration and motivation(s) to train, perform and succeed.

Guin Batten, silver medallist from the 2000 Sydney Olympics brought the conference to a fitting close sharing with delegates her disappointment in having to retire from top class rowing and her subsequent search for a new challenge. "There is no way a fine boat will make it across the Channel" "There are too many tankers going through the Channel, the washes will be too big, you will be swamped", "The boat will break in two it's not strong enough." "The tides will push you off course."; "The ferries will run you down." However, none of these were enough to dissuade Guin from pursuing one of her dreams, rather I think they further fuelled her passion and determination. Footage from her successful attempt to break the solo channel crossing in a fine boat brought a lump to several throats. Guin beat the previous record by some 20-minutes - what next for this quite remarkable athlete?!!

This conference would not have been possible without the support of many organisations and individuals but special thanks must go to the East Midlands Development Agency and SAQ International.

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