With it being Volunteers' Week, anyone who has ever played sport regularly, from grassroots to elite level, myself included, will have been helped, supported or come into contact with one of the country’s unsung army of volunteers. 

From officials, marshals, coaches, administrators, helpers, medical staff and first-aiders - the list goes on. Without all of them sport would not exist.

I am acutely aware of the role they have played through every step of my career and the hand they have had in my success.

But all too often this army of hidden volunteers are taken for granted because the assumption is that they’ll always be there, come rain or shine, morning or night.

People who give up their time, not to play sport, but to help others play, enjoy and compete are a rare breed and should be celebrated. They don’t do it for the glory or the recognition, but for the benefit of others.

Figures show that sport in the UK relies on more than 1.5 million volunteers and we are told that 75,000 people will be needed to make sure the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics can go ahead to the enjoyment of billions around the world.

Because these people are so passionate about what they do, there is often a tendency to think that there will always be a constant stream of dedicated volunteers coming into sport to replace those who are too old or simply unable to give up their time anymore because of commitments elsewhere.

Equally, there are members of the general public who have never volunteered, but would like to "if there was just one extra hour in the day" and they weren’t so busy with modern life.

I’d like to think that there is a volunteer in all of us.

Sometimes volunteering can come at a cost - if not financial, then via a commitment in other areas of life, such as time spent away from family.

The rewards though can be overwhelming and the sense of personal pride, achievement and joy in the knowledge that you’ve helped give something to someone - for nothing - is priceless.

Organisations like the charity I support, the Youth Sport Trust, which works to provide opportunities and experiences for every young people to develop through sport, are trying to make sure that the next generation of volunteers grows in number not shrinks.

I strongly believe that young people can be incredibly powerful leaders, acting as role models to their peers, often without even realising just how influential they can be. The Trust recognises just how crucial it is to tap into this natural resource and encourage these youngsters to identify the opportunities that exist for them within sport outside of just participating.

An example is the Trust’s TOP Link programme which encourages secondary school students to organise and manage sport festivals and competitions for primary or special school pupils - an initiative for young people, delivered by young people, if you like.

Elsewhere, the Step into Sport programme aims to increase the quantity, quality and diversity of young people engaged in volunteering and leadership. Recently in Loughborough at the University, around 300 teenagers spent three days improving their skills to become better leaders, coaches and volunteers at the annual Step into Sport Camp.



I was lucky enough to be there and experience for myself how much of an impact the camp had on this diverse range of young people.  It’s not an exaggeration to say that the lives of some of those attending will have been changed forever as they learnt more about themselves and their capabilities.

They will have made life-long friendships and developed key skills, such as teamwork, tolerance of others and humility, which will stay with them - all because of sport.

The Youth Sport Trust has also worked with a number of cities across the country, which all host major sporting events to recruit young volunteers from local schools running sports leadership programmes.

Importantly, the Youth Sport Trust is also helping schools deliver training for young leaders in sport.

Young people across the country who are leading the way, in terms of showing themselves to be incredibly positive and inspiring role models for their peers, are joining together as official Young Ambassadors - a scheme managed by the Youth Sport Trust and endorsed by the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG).

These 14-to-19-year-olds advocate the benefits of sport and health to other young people and are involved in a range of volunteering activities, including organising sports festivals, leading school assemblies, coaching and mentoring.

There is no question that London 2012 is helping to encourage more young people than ever before into leadership and volunteering, particularly in their schools and communities.

Elsewhere, young officials have been deployed in a number of major sporting events over the past year, none more so than at the annual Sainsbury’s UK School Games, while many governing bodies of sport now have a Young Officials programme.

This is all against the backdrop of a constantly changing environment for young people with more distractions than ever before.

Sport is fighting to compete with computer games, the internet, music, fashion and the world of celebrity, in terms of getting its share of the average young person’s time.

I believe it’s up to all of us to help do our bit to encourage more young people into volunteering - perhaps by setting an example and finding time to do more of it ourselves.

Darren Campbell is one of Britain's most successful-ever sprinters, including being a member of the 4x100 metres relay team that won the gold medal at the 2004 Olympics in Athens. He is now an Ambassador for Sky Sports Living for Sport, a successful initiative run by the Youth Sport Trust in conjunction with BSkyB, which uses sport as a tool to re-engage young people who may be at risk of opting out of school life