Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government on which occasions the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games volunteers have been contacted to encourage them to continue volunteering in sport, and how successful such initiatives were in 2014.

London 2012 Games Makers have been alerted to 22 different volunteering opportunities via the Be Inspired newsletter from January 2014 to February 2015 inclusive. Examples of opportunities include volunteering with British Athletics at the Sainsbury’s 2014 Summer Series, and a chance to volunteer with England Hockey at the EuroHockey Championships in August 2015, which was promoted in the November 2014 newsletter.

Join In was established in 2012,supported by government funding, to harness the goodwill generated around the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games to promote sport volunteering. It works in close collaboration with Sport England, including as the provider of content around volunteering opportunities for the Sport England-owned ‘Be Inspired’ database, which includes the London 2012 volunteers and covers the opportunities to volunteer listed above.

In addition to this collaboration, Join In has been successful in attracting London 2012 volunteers into its own campaigns and wider event volunteering, including directing over 2,000 Games Makers through to information on volunteering for the Tour de France Grand Depart in July 2014 and sourcing nearly 250 Games Makers to volunteer at the Richmond Running Festival (September 14).

At grassroots level, Join In recruited and retained 100,000 volunteers a year in community sport for local sports clubs and other projects in 2013 and 2014. Their 2014 volunteer survey showed that a high proportion of the sample of these volunteers surveyed had previously volunteered at London 2012 (74%).

In addition, around 80% of Join In Local Leaders volunteered at London 2012, citing the opportunity to be part of the legacy as a key motivating factor in their application. Over 250 of Local Leaders have been recruited by Join In to drive volunteering in local areas. Join In also administers the largest online community of London 2012 volunteers – a Facebook page with 50k subscribers.