Three grants for JROS including new Czech Republic training camp
Credit: WOC 2021
We are pleased to announce three grants for the Junior Regional Orienteering Squads (JROS) for the Lagganlia training camp, a young coach development course, and a new training camp in Czech Republic.
JROS was established in 2009 with an initial aim to provide summer training camps for M/W14-18 juniors, feeding into the British Orienteering talent program (and filling a gap where British Orienteering previously provided a wider range of summer camps). JROS quickly built up to 4 camps which have continued now for over a decade:
- Lagganlia, Scotland - mainly M/W14s
- Deeside, Scotland - mainly M/W16s
- Stockholm, Sweden - mainly M/W17s
- Gothenburg, Sweden self-help camp - M/W18s and M/W19s
With renewed interest post-Covid, it has been decided to add a fifth camp to the portfolio, catering for M/W16s (with Deeside focussing on M/W15s). Not only is this another great opportunity for juniors, it will be held in Czech Republic, offering juniors broader experience across a variety of continental terrain. The location of Potkávárna u Havrana in the Jizera mountains near Liberec in the north of the Czech Republic gives access to the fabulous terrain from the World Orienteering Championships 2021, including the spectacular "rock city" terrain of huge sandstone rock pillars and mini-mazes between crags. The camp will also take advantage of hostel accommodation owned by family links of Ben Windsor (DRONGO).
Of course, all these training camps cost money and require significant time from volunteers. As well as providing camps for juniors, JROS has for the last decade sought to develop the next generation young adults into qualified orienteering coaches, who can help on the JROS camps as well as back with their junior regional squads. To that end, we have also awarded two further grants to help cover expenses for:
- young adult coaches attending the Lagganlia training camp
- coaches working towards their UKCC Level 2 coaching qualification, including the requried coaching course
We wish JROS every success with their full program including the new Czech Republic camp, and we looking forward to seeing the next batch of qualified coaches!
Post award update - The third grant for coaches working towards UKCC Level 2 qualifications ended up being withdrawn as there wasn't enough interest in putting on the course.