Blog with a message

Week 30 – what am I doing because you aren’t seeing me on the range?

Helen Sharpe Blog with a message, weekly update
Let’s regain some of the excitement please

I was asked if I am not at home and I am not on the range what I am doing? How can I be committed to my projects?

My initial response was almost rude but I thought about how best to deal with the question, particularly in the face of the last 13 months of things that have been said and emailed or sent on various platforms. In that time I have never once been rude, disrespectful or unkind, to the sender or the people who are ultimately responsible for the issues in broken promises – that I too have been victim of!

My replies have continued to show respect and support to those people and their businesses.

I have repeatedly explained that if you made plans based on promises and ideas given to you by someone we would have been mutually working with, their change of plans and how that impacts you is not my fault and I cannot answer questions that I do not have answers to. You need to contact that person.

So to send me a message today that basically states what I am going through is a suitable punishment for my perceived failure is really not ok, on any level and basic human empathy should prevent such a message even being sent!

Currently my time is spent Friday evening to Monday evening in Derbyshire providing the support that I am giving. I am working my paid employment Monday to Friday with some small tweaks to my shift patterns.

Integr8Archery is still a huge focus, I never stopped.

This week?

Wednesday 7:30 a meeting before work at a school with a willing level 2 coach to help me confirm my thoughts before we both started our paid employment at 9:30. Lunch time meeting to discuss ideas and send emails. Evening sending and replying to emails, arranging more meetings.

Thursday – 5:30 to 7:30 & 22:00 to 23:45 emails, letters, plans being drawn up and sent out.

Friday 2 telephone calls at 19:00 – 19:30

Saturday 7:00 blog update and 20:15 emails

Sunday 8:00 to 9:30 & 20:30 to 21:45 emails and telephone calls.

Monday 19:45 to 21:25 emails, messaging and telephone calls.

Tuesday 5:30 to 7:00 emails, 16:45 to 17:30 meeting with activity partnership, 19:00 to 20:00 meeting with club secretary re membership, sport80 and some future planning.

From my point of view it doesn’t look too bad for someone who isn’t interested, focused or can’t be seen!

I continue to be grateful to those who support me, daily help with projects and keeping me in the loop but I can trust their management whilst I do what my family needs.

I wish you all a safe week and all the best as I continue to do what I can for my business, club and projects.

Please respect my time to deal with the practicalities of loosing an important person in my life and the lives of many others.

Thank you for fitting in with me to make this period work

Helen Sharpe Blog with a message

I suspect that thank you is going to be a big theme over the coming weeks. If you know me and read my blogs, it’s pretty much a constant anyhow, but at the moment my time is restricted and I do not take for granted that people are joining me for meetings at 7:30 or 21:00! Coaches bringing their lunches to meet me in my lunch hour and grab that time to make plans as they support me whilst I am not around, the flexibility that I have always shown to fit in around others is being offered to me with no boundaries at the moment and it is allowing us all to be productive and continue to move projects forwards.

I am missing shooting and I am missing seeing archers in person, so when I get back at it in person in full which I think is likely going to be March, prepare yourselves because this hugger will be catching up on missed hugs 🙃🤗

I am currently working on moving 3 of the schools forward with big plans for each as the children are driving their aims and I am proud that they are enjoying the sport but that they are also setting their own goals, some are going big with their long term aims and some I suspect, may be coaches of the future as they have taken on mentoring others and creating their own little videos on shooting techniques and form, to help new students who are coming on board.

We are back on track with planning the postponed instructors course and some other grassroots groups looking to start their archery sessions, I never get bored of the variety that our sport allows us to offer to anyone who approaches us.

Enjoy your sport and yes, please do continue to let me know how you are getting on, it actually gives me something to focus on and why I am working on all of this, so no, you are definitely not intruding by messaging me 😊❤️🏹

Week 28 – appearing on the radio!

Helen Sharpe Blog with a message, Event recap, News, weekly update
Representing the county on the local radio

Thank you to everyone who has reached out or let me move meetings and things. Sport is made up of some amazing people and this week has proven that both within my own sport and others who I collaborate with, the very best of sporting attributes have played a part in getting me through most days.

Obviously not being at home means I have not shown up in person for anything but for the things I could not delay the lessons we learned in Covid regarding virtual communication have proven priceless.

I will not bore you with details of arrangements being made but will celebrate them at later dates when things start to happen. However, thank you to Maggie, Duncan and Chris for getting on with schools and arranging things between them. It has been incredibly helpful to just have that lifted from me.

So, the only real thing to shout about was today’s radio appearance!

BBC radio Northampton had approached the local activity partnership, Northamptonshire Sports, to be linked with people in local sports to take part in the afternoon show hosted by Tim Wheeler and includes a music quiz and I was somewhat anxious about representing the sport and failing to get anything right 😱🫣 as a heavy rock / metal fan I was especially scared of getting a bunch of pop song related questions, so I chose 70’s in the hope there may me some glam rock or those quirky hits!

My aim was to promote the sport and it’s inclusivity and hopefully I didn’t embarrass the sport or the county as I was representing NCAS.

Have a listen for yourself and judge with kindness please, you can hear me from 15:44 to 15:58.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live:bbc_radio_northampton

pretty much my radio face 😂😂😂🫣

27 weeks and 1 day 😞

Helen Sharpe Announcement, Blog with a message, weekly update
What else would your granddaughter ask you to do for her birthday, join her on the range ❤️🏹

As you are aware I have been taking time away and you have all been very patient. My father was diagnosed in June and we were told that it was terminal within 36 hours, he didn’t want the details made publicly as we faced it together as a family. Thank you to everyone who allowed me to be a little slower in those times when I went off grid and the understanding that there was something happening that was bigger than anything you may need.

As time progressed it was simply sitting, chatting, making memories, sharing memories and having those conversations that people ask to have the chance to have.

The timing of his diagnosis was shortly before I made the step to create Integr8Archery. Absolutely no greater supporter of this than my dad. Chatting about what I wanted to achieve, how I wanted to achieve it, and details of everything I was doing and celebrating my successes.

He had been incredibly supportive of the various projects in the last 3 years and had been especially supportive of the charity that we had looked to create, the idea of doing amazing work in memory of your father really hit home to my dad, who family had such meaning for. He had some great ideas of how to help us get funding there.

In the absence of that project he got behind my “little business” as he always called it with a smile on his face 🙃 he was thrilled to read the week 26 update of what we had achieved in the first 26 weeks. I am so pleased he was able to share that progress just last week.

I shall, without a doubt, miss my amazing father who never doubted me, always supported me and always listened as I threw around ideas and was always happy to share his perspective, it’s always good to have an outsider’s view.

I ask you now for 2 things:

  1. Your patience for a little while longer as, over the next few weeks, my family and I deal with all that our loss brings. I will answer and arrange things, and I am grateful to my supportive team who will be helping me keep things moving, but things may be a little slower than usual as other things take priority.
  2. If you have a concern, a small niggle, anything that you may be worried about health wise, go to your doctor and keep going, my dad had worried and didn’t push maybe like he might. I don’t blame the NHS – we are incredibly grateful to all of the staff who have been involved in his care. Had he pushed, things might have been different but my point is, don’t take the chance, it might be scary, but push and keep pushing. If nothing else comes from this, our family’s latest battle with this horrible disease, let it be that you push for your health and we don’t loose you sooner than we need to.

I have lost one of my heroes, one of my greatest supporters – the man it was my privilege to call pop pops – my father.

Integr8Archery Club and Friends ❤️🏹

Helen Sharpe Announcement, Blog with a message, Joining forces for strength, News

If you have been following us a little while or even just had a quick look around the website, you will know we have our own archery club and that we are a little bit different, this allows us to fit our aims and our needs together quite nicely.

We get asked if people can join, yes – absolutely. So we are a hybrid club, as a regular member you can pay your AGB fees via us and we will be your first club. We are also a school club and as such have school satellite sites dotted about. Why is this important? It really only impacts you from a range perspective. We have 4 school ranges registered to the club, this will be increasing to 6 very shortly. These are not open to anyone but are specific to our groups who shoot there. At the moment Integr8Archery Club doesn’t have a range of it’s own for regular members, simply there aren’t enough of us in one place, this may change it may not. We have members around the country. For some we are actually their second club as they want to support us and our aims but they are too far away to shoot with us on a regular basis. These archers are also choosing to have a club shirt and often, in place of their name on the back, choosing to put the name of their first club to allow them to support both clubs with one shirt, an idea that I love.

I did say I would let you know where and when we will be so that when you want to join us to fling some arrows you could join us. For those of us who are local to Northampton I have chosen our main shooting spot to be Archers of Raunds and these are my second club. Why? Simply the hand of friendship that they have extended me, over the last couple of years especially and they are one of the clubs involved in the archery in education project. When I discussed the needs of Integr8Archery Club they didn’t hesitate. So I would like to take this opportunity to thank them again for the support that they give me on a personal level and also the work I do at grassroots level.

There are some other clubs you will likely see me pop up at as these are where my shooting friends are and where I have always been welcomed – Long Buckby has the advantage of my friend and county captain who allows me to pick his knowledge when things aren’t right. Banbury Cross is another warm welcome and my aim as I settle back into routine is to visit these 2 clubs once a month if I can. In the summer I try and get to Bowmen of Glen at least once a fortnight as the company is great and of course I need to settle and get over more often again to my shooting buddies at Kestrels which again was easier in the summer but definitely worth the effort. Don’t forget the clubs that extend a welcome for us to shoot have shooting fees and some require a pre-booked lane.

Usually I love competition and spend most of my Sunday’s doing just that, I’m working on it and will get back to it and when I start booking places I will let you know so that you can join me if and when you wish as some of you have suggested that you would enjoy this as a way of getting together.

So that’s hopefully answered some questions, if I have missed something don’t be shy – ask. See you on the shooting line soon.

26 weeks, 6 months!! Oh my! Thank you and some numbers🥰

Helen Sharpe Blog with a message, Numbers and stats, weekly update

I cannot believe that it’s been 6 months! It’s been a massive learning curve and in so many ways. I have to say thank you to everyone who has supported me in anyway from helping put on a session, to listening to me bounce ideas around, to just giving me a nudge when I think I might not be good enough.

I was literally on my knees on the 27th June having been barely surviving for 6 months and really hit a very dark place, a small group of incredible people had literally, some days helped me to breathe and dragged me through but on that Monday evening I genuinely couldn’t see any way to keep my sport at all. To continue to shoot or to continue my work within it.

What I hadn’t counted on were 2 people that evening – one who shared their own story and then told me to put on my brightest leggings – I guess it was my very specific version of being told to put on my big girl pants and fight 😉 if you know me, you would know that was probably hitting the nail on the head. The other was someone who had stood back, remaining neutral and that evening decided to express their opinion after months of being quiet. It turns out my quiet friend has a very specific brand of motivational talking, and a lot like my counsellor mostly leaves me with my thinking significantly questioned, challenged and with a lot of work to do within my own mind. His timing was perfect! I think earlier would have failed and maybe he knew that.

For his trouble, the following morning he and a selected bunch of others awoke to messages explaining my early basic plans and what I needed to do to get started. So 28th June 2022 Integr8Archery was born, and here I am 26 weeks later, 6 months!! Having achieved so much, and with so very much still to do.

I thought it would be a great time to look at some numbers because in recent weeks I have been asked by a number of people for some details, and also use what I had done previously to add some context. So, if you are interested here are some figures, grab a cuppa and have a read:

I completed my beginners course in 2018 and I have held lots of roles since then, I did do some volunteering within the sport before I became an archer myself but I thought 2018 seems like a decent place to start and yes, this is all volunteering, and it doesn’t include what I have done at AGB competitions or for other sporting events outside of archery.

2018 –

  • 1. helped out on 3 taster days – attended by local community groups and saw 143 people pick up a bow.
  • 2. helped out at 4 beginners course – 49 people completed those courses

2019

  1. Organised and put on a county charity event
  2. helped at 5 taster days – attended by 185 people
  3. helped at 3 beginners courses – 37 people completed
  4. organised archery for 2 multi sports events – helping 72 people get a taster of our sport
  5. volunteered for archery at the World Transplant Games

2020

The year of the pandemic! I did lots of things this year but by far my biggest achievement was helping with the return to sport guidance particularly when I picked up the phone following the original release and explained that until every archer was given the opportunity to choose to return we hadn’t yet gotten it right, those initial steps prevented some of our most vulnerable members being given the choice!

I attended so many webinars and workgroups, not just within archery but within multi-sports settings both locally and nationally and took the opportunity to study and learn for my role in safeguarding, being furloughed gave me the chance to do some of those things I had never had time for.

Sitting on the range for hours every day helping people feel confident enough to come back to shooting or try a new sport they discovered whilst locked in and searching the web, was incredibly rewarding and the ability to work with other grassroots sports to help each other was definitely another advantage to that time as we all took to get to know each other, bonds created which we still use now.

2021

  1. 3 taster days – 135 people with a bow in their hands
  2. 5 beginners courses across 3 clubs – 72 people completed
  3. business games events – 135 people shooting
  4. organised and hosted a county charity event


    archery in education starts with –
  5. wave 1 – 102 children shooting
  6. wave 2 – 136 children shooting
  7. primary school sessions – 57 children shooting
  8. colleges – 27 students shooting
  9. Out Of school educated children – 87 people with a bow in their hands for the taster sessions and 32 going onto weekly sessions
  10. 10 school staff completing an instructors course
  11. 29 coaches across all levels helping put these sessions on

2022

up to April

  1. 9 secondary schools – 118 children shooting
  2. out of school setting children – 27 children shooting
  3. 3 local community groups having 4 sessions each – 48 individuals shooting

Integr8Archery

first 6 months

  1. 13 secondary schools across 3 counties after school clubs – 208 children
  2. 2 schools now have Integr8Archery satellite clubs – 23 children
  3. weekly curriculum sessions providing archery for 72 children
  4. 4 primary schools – 68 children
  5. 3 nursing homes – 31 individuals
  6. Weekly sessions for 4 weeks for ladies from a local refuge = 15 people, LGBTQIA+ support groups = 28 people & foster families = 13 children
  7. helping 3 school games events – totalling over 200 children shooting
  8. 2 flight archery workshops – introducing 18 people to this style of archery
  9. Integr8Archery club – currently collating the paperwork for 38 children and 11 adults
  10. getting access to the anti violence pledge available online
  11. obtaining Community Interest Company status and ensuring the very strict guidelines to being non profit are set and unchangeable – my way and no one else’s regardless of who collaborates with me – set in stone so I can relax
  12. start my journey to become a disability sports coach and learn 5 new sports
  13. joining forces with Sport for Development Coalition, Children’s Coaching Collaborative, We are Undefeatable, Belong and continuing to build and strengthen the relationships with the National Governing Body, Sport England, Northamptonshire Sports, local archery clubs and counties who have the same aims, and numerous groups who, together, we continue to learn to bring people to sport but to protect them whilst they are in our care.

Throughout this time I have continued to work in my safeguarding role and deal with incidents as they arise, develop my knowledge and support a number of families in well-being. Whatever else happens, I stand by my promise that I will make sport safer for everyone and to help support those where issues have created failure of care. Together we can create change.

So without a doubt, thank you to those who told me I did have a place, there’s a lot of shooting happened because you didn’t just watch me walk away when I thought I had no alternative.

Happy Christmas

Helen Sharpe Blog with a message

What has this week been so far?

Tidying up plans for 2023, reviewing that last 6 months and what went well and where I can improve, funding applications and planning to be on the radio in the new year 😱

Christmas planning, if like me you don’t actually like Christmas it’s always a challenge! We smile and get on with it because it’s easier than defending our position, but if you need a place to scream, give me a shout.

That being said have a great Christmas and enjoy whatever you do, and I hope that whatever happens you manage to find time for maybe a frostbite shoot or some other fresh air activity. No frostbite for me this year on Boxing Day instead a day with friends and muddy bikes, I have always gotten thrills standing at the edge of a racing track so if I can’t shoot being amongst petrol heads will be great fun.

For now a coffee and Christmas clothes to pop over to the range and see friends.

See in a couple of days and take care.

Helen

Week 25 – a little early but it’s important! Anti violence campaign- Manchester Bee 🐝

Helen Sharpe Announcement, Blog with a message, Event recap, Joining forces for strength, News, weekly update
Manchester Bee at Cromford Mills

If you have looked at the website and you have been following my blogs then you will know that the anti violence campaign is something that I feel incredibly strongly about.

On the 14th May I took part and helped marshal the march in Wellingborough led by the charity Off the Streets which culminated in the arrival at the knife angel monument which stopped for a few hours on it’s journey from Northampton to Corby in order for it to be part of this important day. The aim of the day, and any hosting of the monument is to provoke discussion around what we can do as individuals and together, in unison, to stop street violence. You can read about the day on the knife angel page of this website.

As I was busy talking to people around the topic and what we can do to help offer alternatives for our young people than to join those gangs that is often how they find themselves where violence is the only answer, I entirely forgot to sign the anti violence pledge. So, the following weekend, joined by my friend and our children we visited the monument at it’s stop in Corby. When we returned home it was to be told that moments after we left my friend’s house the air ambulance had made a landing in the local park as there had been a young person stabbed just that afternoon.

Today whilst visiting my parents, I became aware that the Manchester Bee monument which is made entirely of firearms and blades collected in an amnesty in the Manchester area, was being hosted locally by Derbyshire Constabulary. The weapons used to create the bee are part of what has been collected in the Forever Amnesty campaign.

I had the privilege of visiting the bee today in Derbyshire at Cromford Mills, the first host constabulary outside of Manchester for this important symbol of what we are all trying to aim for, to bring about social change. The bee has 2 other venues in Derbyshire – tomorrow 19th December at Buxton town centre and on Wednesday 21st December at Hall Leys Park, Matlock Town Centre. If you are able to, please pop along and visit, collect your own little handcrafted bee – at no cost, but to help promote conversation at home or work. The monument is less visually imposing than the knife angel but no less thought provoking or emotive. I think the inclusion of guns has a massive impact visually and for me, gave me new things to think about in addition to those previous thoughts and conversations I had had, earlier in the year.

I must also say thank you to the 2 officers who had been on the process of packing up at the end of the day for making time to allow an out of area Witness Care Officer to not just have a quick look, but to discuss what these crimes mean to us on a daily basis both in and out of work, and what our thoughts are around who and how might be able to help drive change.

Following my time with the knife angel I had communicated with Clive Knowles who is the Chairman and National Youth Violence Educational Programme and Tour Lead, to look at how the anti violence pledge could be made available online to those who wanted to sign up but were not near a local hosting event, and as you are aware I proudly announced, and have shared the link several times since, now that this access has been completed and I ask you again to consider what role you could take in helping stop or prevent violence on our streets.

I am not asking you to jump in if you see something happening. I am asking you to consider what, if any, small part can you play in offering an alternative for a young person who may not yet have joined that gang that would take them down the path where violence becomes the only answer.

Yes, I have worked in this area for almost 30 years but that’s dealing with what has happened!

I see my role in anti violence and prevention much more in the many hours I give in grassroots sports, where we can show there is an alternative place to belong. A different group to join. One that will not take you down a path where violence is the choice you face.

I was asked recently by a coach “ why is this my issue, why should I be involved?”.

Aren’t we all trying to work towards young people choosing sport?

Don’t you see how that fits the aims of the of anti violence and social change campaign? It’s a huge part!

So many of us are working to improve access at grassroots levels and to get our sport into schools, this is such a logical part of what we are doing and that is your pledge, right there.

So signing the pledge is just becoming part of that wider group who together, each with our own small step, can create a movement that might make our streets safer for the people caught up in these issues. Remember some of those who fall victim are simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, it’s not all those “wrong uns” as was recently described to me!!

21 weeks, it’s cold! Illness doesn’t stop everything, emails can be sent from under a quilt 😂

Helen Sharpe Blog with a message, News, weekly update
Pretty much the expression that I have been mostly wearing this week

So week 21 saw me hit with germs and mostly sleep. Turns out the already poor functioning blood doesn’t do recovery well!
However, despite all of that, I did manage to get some things done.

Conversations about how we divide the Muslim community group into smaller manageable groups to introduce to archery. I am thrilled at the choice made for our first priority and I cannot wait to see them start.

A couple of new groups reached out and though early, I think they both look like we immediately have a plan of action so it’s going to be exciting over the coming weeks.

Schools moving into club phase, and the numbers of children wanting to extend their archery from curriculum to club has taken me by surprise but I am thrilled that they are enjoying it, setting themselves goals and seeing it as an alternative to hanging around the streets after school finishes. Most definitely proof of those conversations I had in the early summer at the knife angel event.

Whilst I had been disappointed when first hearing of the weekend’s training for my Disability Sports Coach course being postponed, by the time the weekend came around I was actually pleased as I likely wouldn’t have been able to make it, but it did give me time to plan and suggest ways that I can maximise my days in London for placement days so it wasn’t wasted time.

Lots of talk around well-being, some general but some specifically around issues arising, sometimes a coffee and sharing thoughts is all it takes to see a way around a blockage in communication. It is always a privilege that people see me as someone they can trust for these conversations.

A fitting point, perhaps to remind you all that it’s safeguarding adults week, if you want to know a little more the Ann Craft Trust is a great place to start.

Several other project issues this week would point me to the belief that within the “art of repetition” we could use improvement in the “art of communication”.

Within the three Monday schools sessions 7 children picked up a bow for the first time, these are the things that keep me moving forward on the days I might quit and Monday afternoon seriously was another of those “why am I doing this” moments.

Gratitude to the friends who reached out and made me laugh and reminded me that I love this sport and I am passionate about what we can achieve with it. So I guess I will stay a little longer 😉 (we know that I am unlikely to go anywhere really).

Finished the week with a smile despite the illness and wobbles

International Men’s Day – 19th November 2022.

Helen Sharpe Blog with a message, Health


Firstly I want to say I am blessed to know many men and boys who are amazing examples of what we should be celebrating and are great role models, you don’t have to be prefect to be an example to others.

So I would like to say thank you to every one of you who bring something to my world. I am not going to name names or list what each give me, support, laughter, hugs, listening to me on my worried, sad, excited days. Encouraging me to be the best version of me that I can be. Without a doubt my dad and my son have been amazing this year despite their own issues, but there are others who have not given up on me and gently pushed me – thank you, every single one of you.

The theme of 2022 is helping men and boys. We are all familiar with Movember which is an opportunity to raise money and focus on men’s health and tomorrow, 20th November is International Children’s Day and it is suggested this year that we focus on 48 hours of celebration of men and children the special relationships that they share. With this in mind I would like to thank Paul Sharpe for being a great father to our amazing children and helping them to achieve their goals.

Take a look at these links and enjoy helping the men in your life know that we do appreciate everything that they do.

International Men’s Day UK

Movember UK

Me and my dad – just a little while ago ❤️