Innov8 Sportz CIC is a non-for-profit organisation that uses physical activity to build confidence and social skills. They pledged to Be Involved in November 2018, since their pledge they have engaged with Wiltshire Council’s Employment and Skills service in various ways, we met Terry Bathe – CEO to discuss the work he and his team are doing.

Why did you pledge to ‘Be Involved’?

It’s our ethos as a business to engage with communities, removing social, religious and economic barriers so pledging to Be Involved made a lot of sense for us. We often find within sport there isn’t always an opportunity to give those with long term health or disabilities a chance to join in. Therefore, we pride ourselves on going the extra mile to include others.

Can you tell us what areas you pledged to and how these pledges have been taken forward?

We have pledged to supported internships, working with your colleagues at Wiltshire Council to support two young people. They previously felt they weren’t included but we can help them to get involved and they are supporting delivery locally to them, allowing them to expand their skills by helping others.

We also pledged to Building Bridges, Annette approached us to find out if we could offer a work placement which is now in full swing, we hope to convert this into a Level 3 Apprenticeship for the young person. The Employment and Skills service has been on hand to answer our questions about apprenticeships and how we can access free funding to up skill our current workforce. The industry has changed from just a sports focus to involving the community, therefore we want to offer our employees as much as we can by helping them to improve their personal skills.