Paris 2024 – Professional Development

Switched On (Switch the Play Foundation): Switched On is a development and wellbeing service, supporting athletes to thrive professionally and personally, whilst empowering them to navigate the inevitable changes on their journey in sport and beyond. It includes access to:

• A personalised Discovery process, to understand an athlete’s needs and tailor support.
• Six free Coaching and Mentoring sessions, with an experienced coach/mentor; a Psychological Care Pathway for additional mental wellbeing support, with six fully funded psychotherapy sessions if needed.
• Personal development programmes, offering a more immersive support experience.
• Career pathways support including insight days with industry experts, to explore potential careers.
• Switched On Hub, that houses transition support content, videos, and podcast.
• the chance to be part of athlete communities, creating a forum for peer-to-peer support.

The Full Circle Project (The Mintridge Foundation): The Full Circle Project aims to harnesses the unique influential power of sporting role models to improve the life skills, health and well-being and aspirations of young people and their families. Led by the Mintridge Foundation, the aspiration is that every young person has a positive relationship with sport to connect, excel and thrive. The 6-month project offers: a blended peer to peer personal development programme providing training and support for athlete ambassadors to enable them to be impactful mentors for young people and to help them navigate the changes in their own lives; and a 6-month remote mentoring programme for athlete ambassadors to mentor a young person. Ambassadors will receive training on how they can mentor young people to connect, excel, and thrive through sport and will be carefully matched to a young person to undertake a 6-month remote mentoring programme. Experience has shown that the multisport athlete environment in addition to athletes being at different stages of their careers (even post transition) has enabled athletes to learn beyond their immediate bubbles and hugely benefit from the insight through the peer-to-peer support.

More than Medals (Dame Kelly Holmes Trust): The More than Medals programme supports elite athletes transitioning out of sport and enables them to become mentors for young people facing daily adversity. It provides a rich environment for personal growth and allows the athlete to craft a new identity, outside of sport, whilst also retaining their athlete identity when they are delivering to young people. The opportunity to support others, often in more difficult situations to their own, gives athletes a new sense of purpose and is rewarding to the individual. The Trust provides athletes with training and ongoing support, as well as some financial stability. This training enables athletes to further appreciate and develop their skills and experiences and understand how they can be deployed to help young people. While equipping athletes to become Athlete Mentors at the Trust (and other organisations), this approach also helps them with their own personal growth and wellbeing. After completing More Than Medals training, the Trust provides athletes with ongoing support, further training, a peer network, personal development plans, and annual formal supervision.

About Switch the Play Foundation

Switch the Play was set up as a social enterprise in 2014 with the purpose of supporting all athletes – irrespective of their sport, background, or stage of their sporting career – with their successful transition into life outside of sport. In 2020 they gained charity status, allowing them to help more people than ever before. Their mission is to empower all athletes to be their best through and beyond sport, providing best-in-class person-centred training, learning and support. They are passionate about supporting the hidden majority of high performing athletes who struggle to navigate the post sport transition, helping both current athletes to prepare ahead, or former athletes find their purpose to thrive beyond sport. Their ambition is to empower 15,000 athletes by 2030 with a transformational impact on 1,500 current and former athletes.

About The Mintridge Foundation

The Mintridge Foundation was founded in 2015 by Managing Director Alex Wallace (Paske). A lifelong sports fan, Alex was keen to channel her interests and help others. Alex wanted to use her experiences, both positive and negative, to promote an active lifestyle and positive mental health for children and young people and to harness the power of sporting role models to help and influence young people. The Mintridge Foundation’s team of Ambassadors, Olympians, Paralympians, and other professional sports stars from over twenty sports, both team and individual deliver holistic sports provision in schools, clubs, and colleges across the UK for young people from all walks of life, of all abilities and physical capabilities.

About Dame Kelly Holmes Foundation

Champion in Your Corner: Dame Kelly Holmes Trust provides specialist training to enable World Class Athletes to harness their unique skillset and pass it on to others, working directly with young people and their partners, creating a legacy which benefits the wider community. Dame Kelly Holmes Trust has 17 years’ experience of supporting elite athletes to successfully transition from world class sport, including providing them with paid opportunities as mentors to vulnerable young people. Since the Trust was founded in 2008, they have supported over 650 athletes to successfully transition from their sporting careers.