Perspectives on the Volunteering Legacy of the London 2012 Olympic Games: The Development of an Event Legacy Stakeholder Engagement Matrix.

Abstract

Using Holmes et al.’s (2015) sustainable event legacy timeline, this paper examines the extent to which the existing volunteering infrastructure supporting volunteer management in the host city were engaged before, during and after the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, to generate a legacy for volunteering. This infrastructure includes volunteering peak bodies, volunteer resource centres, national sport governing bodies, community organisations and local government. A case study of the London 2012 Games was employed involving extensive documentary evidence and interviews with senior level informants. The findings revealed limitations with official legacy planning and a failure to engage with the voluntary sector in the host city. The event legacy timeline is combined with four key themes to emerge from the data to conceptualise an event legacy stakeholder engagement matrix. This identifies recommendations to enable future host cities to optimise opportunities from Olympic Games volunteer programmes to generate wider community benefits.