Here’s how we grew…
In 2016 a very generous member of the golf club offered to support all the captains at the club by giving their respective charities substantial donations. He did, however, want to see the sections doing something worthwhile to receive the money and this reignited the idea of helping children and young people in some way. Once again the idea of giving them a chance to do something different was at the heart of the idea and we knew golf could be the vehicle – ‘Golf for Good’.
Just getting children and young people to the golf club and simply giving them the chance to ‘whack’ the ball was our initial thought. Early in 2018 Emma Brown, resident PGA professional, was full of enthusiasm to begin structured coaching and Dawn Ward was our conduit to the schools. It soon became apparent that there was an appetite for the idea, and it was much more than we had originally envisaged. Furthermore, seeing a need for mentoring support, Ben Littleton, the director of Youth 8, was invited to join the team, bringing with him his extensive knowledge and expertise in the welfare and mentoring of children and young people, and he was already working closely with several local schools.
Our new mentoring company, Strive Youth Engagement, have now taken over from Youth8 – a natural and seamless transition as Harry Gethin, Strive’s Managing Director, worked for Youth8 and has been with us throughout our programme.
Our team grew with the addition of willing volunteers and the number of children and young people, attending, steadily increased as our programme evolved, delivering inspiring golf activities and mentoring support.
We have had over 60 young people involved in the programme and many people supporting fundraising events on behalf of our cause. Feedback from parents, carers and schools has been incredibly positive and from our success, so far, we feel we are now on the road to offering a brighter future to many more children and young people.