Supporting Growth through the 2025 Development Fund Awards

We are pleased to announce the latest round of funding awards made through the SOA Development Fund. This fund is designed to provide financial support to projects that contribute to the development of the sport and fit within the remit of the SportScotland agreed development objectives for the sport. Specifically at this point, we asked clubs to come to us with projects that focus on the recruitment and development of 20-40 year olds, continued development of participation following WOC 2024 and support for clubs that saw a dramatic decline in membership following the Covid pandemic.

Congratulations to the clubs that have received awards: EckO, GRAMP, INVOC and MAROC. These clubs all provided project proposals that satisfy the above conditions and have committed themselves to helping develop our sport.

EckO are looking to increase their pool of active young and mature adult members by providing training opportunities to upskill them as volunteers. This training will involve an introduction to planning including the use of Condes, event organisation and safety, basic mapping with OCAD and foundation and Level 1 coaching. The sport as a whole has a diminishing volunteer capacity and often depends on a core group of people to plan and organise events. EckO’s project might be something that other clubs can look to mirror in the future to help alleviate these struggles so we look forward to seeing the progression of this project.

GRAMP were impacted by the recent storms, most notably Storm Arwen, and as a result have lost large areas of their woodlands leading to a reduction in the amount of activities and events they have been able to hold. They have requested funding to help them to get back on their feet to allow them to stage larger competitions and club-based coaching sessions. This will help develop new and less experienced orienteers by providing them with progression to technical areas beyond the urban environment.

INVOC were one of the clubs which saw a dramatic decline in membership as a result of COVID. The have reestablished a successful annual schools league that attracts participants from various schools in and around Inverness and are looking to extend this. They plan to spend their funding helping schools with orienteering resources which would encourage participation from more schools and develop orienteering skills and awareness.

MAROC were another club that saw a dramatic decline in membership due to COVID. As on of the clubs heavily involved in the upcoming Deeside 2025 Scottish 6 Days, they have hired a part time Development Officer to help raise the profile of orienteering across Deeside, get more people active and provide more opportunities for people to participate. In order to capitalise on this opportunity, MAROC were awarded funding towards the cost of their CDO who will focus on putting on a number of additional activities over their usual offering and reduce the burden on their usual cohort of volunteers as they reach out to encourage an increase in membership.

Thanks to MAROC for these photos of their recent successful CATI sessions aimed at local families and newcomers to the sport.

We wish the best of luck to all these clubs for their current and upcoming projects and look forward to receiving their reports on progress in 6 months time. We hope to offer another opportunity to clubs to submit funding requests for development funding in June.