Rich Goulding, Director of Sport and Education, reflected back on his journey of setting up his business in 2023. The foundation is based in Gloucestershire, targeting children outside of mainstream education.
“I had just left Gloucester Rugby, I was a tutor at Gloucester Rugby for the HITZ programme. I’ve been a teacher for 13 years, and I just got a bit disillusioned with mainstream education, and I thought, why not do something about it?
“I was working for a little business called Little Kickers, and one of the parents that was there, I got talking to her and told her I was going to be self-employed and she mentioned home educators. And I thought, yeah, sounds like a good idea.
“I looked a bit more into it and it turns out that home education is growing exponentially since COVID, and once parents deregistered their children from schools, they don’t get any funding. They’re pretty much left to their own devices.
“That’s primarily why we set up Community Sport Foundation. I wanted home educators to get as much sport and physical activity for their children as normal children do, or school children do.”
Now two years in, the foundation is still growing with 450 followers on Facebook and 84 followers on Instagram. But Goulding shared the experience was not all rewarding, as he faced “many barriers”.
“I primarily run my sessions in public parks. I go to the local authorities and try and get permission, sometimes that permission is denied or they want to charge me.
“Which I find, as a small business, a massive barrier. I only incorporated the business this year so we were only incorporated as a community interest company, but since 2023, I’ve been a sole trader. But I’ve not made a profit.
“My whole philosophy and ethos is to have it as a non-profit organisation, so that all the money that has been made goes back into supporting the children we work with. One of the biggest barriers is you can’t play here, or we’re going to have to charge you for playing here and that really irks me because these are public spaces and they should be there for everyone.”
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Goulding is incredibly passionate about his work, dedicating his time and energy into providing a service for children which should already be available for them. He described the goals of his foundation as “accessibility, flexibility and getting children involved in sport”.
“But the most rewarding I think is having children come to my sessions that don’t ordinarily get involved in sport, or have been a bit reticent or shy about getting involved with other children in sport because of other competitive elements that there is naturally in sport.
“How I’ve worked it is that when parents come along and bring their children to the first session, it’s completely free. That gives the children a chance to meet the other kids that go there, have a look at what the session looks like, and get involved and have a taster of it to see if they like it.
“If they don’t like it, then there’s no pressure on the parent to then pay for something that their child doesn’t like.”
The foundation follows the structure of the Play Their Way movement which is in partnership with the Children’s Coaching Collaborative and funded by Sport England.
“We work with a philosophy of an organisation called Play Their Way. Play Their Way is structured on the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child, specifically three areas. Article 3, article 12 and article 31, which gives the child a voice, a choice and a journey through their sport.
“So what that means is, it’s about allowing children to express themselves. It’s about giving the children a choice in what activities they want to do, and it’s about allowing them to develop as well.”
Goulding is the heart of the business, describing his foundation as passionate, driven, and optimistic for the future.
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