Getting on Track

104

Stakeholders
The stakeholders that would be involved in the Coaching Caravan include:

  • TASVG
  • The Pan American Sports Organisation (PASO)
  • The National Olympic Committee (NOC)
  • Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport
  • Ministry of Health and the Environment
  • Ministry of Tourism and Culture
  • National Sports Council
  • Sports Journalists Association
  • Sports Medicine Association

There has to be ongoing dialogue among the aforementioned in order to encourage a partnership approach to the programme.
Critical to the success of the programme and the future of athletics in St Vincent and the Grenadines is the forging of a team. This team involves the following: coaches of the different disciplines in athletics, physiotherapists, chiropractors, sports medicine specialists, nutritionists, sports psychologists and communications specialists.
The programme caters for children aged 8 – 18 years. This allows for a dovetailing of the Kids Athletics Programme for those at the lower age level.
Key Person(s)/Community leaders/activists in each community are to be identified to aid in the mobilisation of children and adults prior to the Coaching Caravan’s visit to ensure maximum exposure to the programme..
Each edition of the Caravan, inclusive of dates and venues must be well advertised in the media as well as by mobile public address systems and word of mouth within the respective communities.
Each Caravan visit comprises several modules/stations of the different athletics disciplines, each of which lasts 45 minutes.
The Caravan sessions are done in rotation – each set of athletes moves through all of the seven stations. The sessions are scheduled sequentially.

Parental involvement
For the programme to be successful parents of the young children must be involved.
Vincentian society, like much of the rest of the world, is fast losing its youths to the so-called vagaries of development, the bulk of which are significantly negative in their consequences for the society as a whole.
Parents are to be encouraged to not just drop off their children to give them some free time, but to be fully involved in the Caravans with their children as often as possible.
The programme, if successful, would ensure the development of a culture of sports in St Vincent and the Grenadines. It would also facilitate sport as a vehicle for community development.
The inculcation of discipline in the athletes and coaches could only be of benefit to the nation.
Perhaps one of the major outcomes would be a significant improvement in social and communication skills of our athletes and coaches thereby building the whole person. Certainly this would be good for us all.