Matt Hillman Tennis (MHT) works across Birmingham, delivering inspiring tennis sessions, including a Community Coaching Programme, developing inclusive tennis for all!
Through their ‘Give It Your Max’ project, their mission is to support young leaders to increase transferable skills and resilience, with the aim of enabling participants to host community days at Kings Norton Tennis Club.
The young leaders participating in the project already had the technical skills required to play and enjoy tennis. ‘Give It Your Max’ provided additional training which complemented their athletic learning, enabling them to broaden their skill set.
The project equipped participants with the social and leadership skills to help them give back to the community, support their peers, and provide them with knowledge for the future.
A Skills360 Young Leaders grant enabled MHT to design and develop a residential experience for leaders to gain new perspectives. Combined with access to the Skills360 eLearning platform, participants were able to develop leadership skills like team-work, communication and problem solving.
Prior to the introduction of Skills360 within the project, Sport Birmingham Development Officer (People and Skills) Ben Gutteridge, visited a MHT session. At the session, the Young Leaders engaged in a range of fun activities from Sport Birmingham’s resource ‘Roots to Success’. These activities included bridgebuilding (problem solving), and a ball game designed to develop communication and organisational understanding. These skills were built upon during the young participants’ subsequent residential.
Impact
The Young Leaders have now gained new ‘employability skills’ useful at the club and beyond. They are currently putting their new skills into practice by designing a community fundraising day hosted at Kings Norton Tennis Club to improve facilities and support more local people to experience the positive outcomes of participation in tennis.