As you may be aware, The Outdoor Partnership (which has operated in N Wales for many years) has recently extended its coverage to include South Wales, operating across 4 regions (Swansea Bay, covering Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire, Swansea & Neath Port Talbot; Mid Wales, covering Ceredigion and Powys; Gwent, covering all the former Gwent areas; and Central South Wales, covering the rest!). Some of the Partnership’s newly-appointed South Wales Development Officers attended SWOAPG’s recent AGM and gave a presentation outlining the ‘South Wales project’ (available on our website 2021 AGM Outdoor Partnership Presentation); and three of the regions presented their evolving development plans at meetings of their Stakeholder Groups – including representatives of SWOAPG – on 25 Nov (with the Central South region to follow in January). A good way to find out more about the Partnership is to check-out their Ten-Year Strategy.
The Partnership’s aim is “to provide opportunities for local residents to get involved with outdoor activity” by means of various locally-delivered projects including ‘social prescribing’; club development; promotion in schools; training (including NGB awards) for volunteers; ‘added-value’ training and networking for activity providers / instructors; and encouraging greater inclusion (including under-represented groups and Welsh language) within the outdoor sector.
There are likely to be numerous potential opportunities for Activity Providers (of all sizes) to get involved in different aspects of the Partnership’s programme and if you’d like to get involved, a good place to start would be to complete the Partnership’s Outdoor activities questionnaire for outdoor activity providers in Wales (if you haven’t already). Or you can contact their Development Officers direct to express your interest. They’ll also be setting up a network of Welsh-speaking instructors for whom there’ll be some specific opportunities – so do let them know if this is you!
Swansea Bay Region: Sioned Thomas sioned.thomas@outdoorpartnership.co.uk
Central South Wales: Leila Connolly leila.connolly@outdoorpartnership.co.uk
Gwent: Brett Mahoney brett.mahoney@outdoorpartnership.co.uk
Mid Wales: Bethan Logan bethan.logan@outdoorpartnership.co.uk