The Organisational Capacity Programme welcomes its latest group of participants who visited the IPC Headquarters for the first time.



A second round of workshops, taking place as part of the Agitos Foundation's Organisational Capacity Programme (OCP), has seen participants visit the IPC Headquarters and meet with various departments.

A total of 13 participants representing National Paralympic Committees (NPCs) from four regions engaged with IPC sport mangers, the medical department and the NPC relationships team, discussing key areas of work along the athlete pathway. The face to face interaction was a forum on key development challenges, mainly administrative capacity, classification and sport technical education as well as an opportunity to ask questions.

The OCP is designed to strengthen National Paralympic Committees (NPC) in the areas of governance, management, leadership and sport promotion, supporting them to improve their overall capacity to develop and support para-athletes in reaching their full potential.

One participant said it was a unique opportunity: “I have never been a part of this kind of programme before. Therefore I am happy to have had the opportunity to participant in the OCP Programme. I have improved tremendously on my presentation skills and have learned skills to get my message across better.”

Another spoke about how the OCP will help to spread the word about para-sport: “The workshop provides me with all the tools, knowledge and skills to work with my NPC and other organisations including the government. It will help me and my NPC a lot in promoting Paralympics in general and in my country.”

The visit took place as one component of the interactive four day training programme held between 6-9 October and is the second to take place.

Delivered by the IPC Academy and the Agitos Foundation, the OCP prioritises learning and training opportunities for NPC and National Federation staff and volunteers in the key areas that the IPC targets as strategic priorities, so that they can deliver workshops in their own countries and regions and take para-sport to new levels.

Using a ‘train the trainer’ methodology which will in turn allow participants to focus on identifying and acting upon the needs of their NPCs and delivering programmes specific to those requirements. The OCP, being delivered in Bonn, the home of the Agitos Foundation, will train selected individuals to lead the level one programme in their own countries.

The Agitos Foundation will then work with the participants for a further two years, providing support when needed to help achieve the long term plans of the NPCs and inspire those throughout the Paralympic Movement.

With resources now available through the IPC’s development arm, the Agitos Foundation, the aim is to create such educational opportunities with NPCs during 2014-2015, through the Organisational Capacity Programme. This will lead to a regionally based level two programme and additional scholarship opportunities for those who excel to progress on to the World Academy of Sport Postgraduate Certificate in Sport Management.

You can find out more about the Organisational Capacity Programme at the Agitos Foundations’ dedicated website.