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03/12/2018
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CIMSPA Youth Panel springs into action

CIMSPA are excited to announce the first meeting of its Youth Panel. The group is comprised of fourteen members from the across the UK with a range of backgrounds and experiences.

The CIMSPA Youth Panel has been created to provide the board of trustees with an authentic perspective from young people who are involved and invested in sport and physical activity. It’s aim is to offer young people a valuable opportunity to influence the policy and direction of the sector’s chartered professional body; allowing them to be proactively involved in the future of their workforce.

Fraser Ford, Youth Panel member spoke enthusiastically about the first meeting and the youth panel’s future saying:

“It was great to meet the CIMSPA team and my fellow youth panel members - everyone was very friendly. I thought the session was extremely informative and it helped to set the scene for what I hope to be a successful collaboration moving forward. I believe that collectively the Youth Panel members will make a positive contribution towards the work of CIMSPA and an asset to the board of trustees over the next year.”

Malcolm McPhail, the CIMSPA trustee leading the panel’s development was overwhelmingly positive about the initial meeting, commenting:

“This is an outstanding and smart group of young people, whose attitude and approach firmly shows that they want to make a difference within the sector, and for those involved outside of it.

“All are ready and willing to shoulder the responsibilities of making positive changes and to take on the challenge of representing the interests of 16 to 25 years olds in sport and physical activity.

These are the people that we want to listen to, that are helping to shape both the future and legacy of CIMSPA, to make it a truly representative organisation for our workforce.

“This generation are experiencing a wide range of challenges within the sector. We need to stop talking at them and instead start listening to them; this is what we have started doing today.”

The panel is comprised of 14 members with different sport and physical activity experiences including higher education, coaching, sports development and the armed forces. The members are as follows:

  • Alex Pitts
  • Amber Honeysett
  • Atanas Nikolaeff
  • Chris Berrevoets
  • Dylan Conti
  • Emily Warnakulasuriya
  • Fraser Ford
  • Gareth Picken
  • Grace Fowkes
  • Jack Coghlan
  • Katie Light
  • Nathan Hayward
  • Samantha Richards
  • Zuleikha Chikh


The panel will meet 4 times a year to discuss their ongoing progress in personal and group projects that they have undertaken.