“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.

Aesop

Introduction

 Who we are

Sports Traider

Charity

Sports Traider is a youth-focused charity offering youngsters the kit and support they need to discover and fulfill their sporting ambition and potential, whatever their background, ability or disability.Sports Traider have established the first chain of charity shops in the UK that specialise in sports kit and equipment. Our mission is to make sports equipment and clothing affordable to all and at the same time generate a sustainable source of funding to help disadvantaged young people participate in sport.

We channel all the money we raise back into grass-roots sport within the community area from which it was donated. We encourage kids to try new sports and help talented sporting youngsters excel. For example, by organising community sport coaching sessions, access to sporting facilities, helping with club fees or transportation. We firmly believe that community sport is an essential part of society and should be available for all, and never an inaccessible luxury.

Creating a level playing field

What we do

Sports Traider

Charity

 

Not all kids have soccer mums and dads. Some families don’t have the time, the money or sometimes – sadly – the commitment to support their children through the expense and effort of taking part in sport. Take a teenager we know in Bedford. Let’s call him Joe. His mother died a few years ago, and his father can’t cope. He’s a talented athlete, selected to train at national level, but he often turns up to training with ripped clothes and broken equipment – if he turns up at all.For Joe to make training and attend fixtures on a regular basis, he needs support as well as money, and kids like Joe just can’t manage it without assistance.

That’s where we come in. Sports Traider will help Joe and thousands of kids like him to enjoy sport, get the kit they need and receive the support they need to excel. Kids like the ones in your community.We believe this will create a virtuous circle transforming community sport: the children who get opportunities and coaching now are likely to become the coaches and enthusiasts of the future.For us, sporting competition should be about talent, not about access to opportunity. That’s why our goal is about creating a level playing field for all.

About Us

Sports Traider Charity exists to give young people employment and sports participation opportunities. In doing so they gain confidence, self-esteem, retail skills and improve mental and physical health.

Our Approach

We do this by managing a professionally run chain of charity sports shops staffed by employees and volunteers. The charity uses the funds to invest in sports participation projects as below:

  • provide free transport to and from venues, either by way of a mini bus or individuals travelling in cars;
  • provide recycled push bikes to make local venues accessible;
  • provide sportswear to ensure that activities are available to all, which may include boots, trainers, jogging bottoms and tops, and more.
  • use proceeds generated from its retail units to fund coaching, access to facilities such as sports clubs and gyms, and fund the transport required to get talented but disadvantaged athletes to training.
  • provide tents and equipment for unprivileged children to have a holiday.
  • provide specialised wheelchairs to enable disabled people to participate in wheelchair sports.
  • help regenerate local shopping areas by utilising otherwise empty retail units.

Who we are

What we do

How you can help

About Us

Our Misson

Sports Traider

Charity

Sports Traider Charity exists to give young people employment and sports participation opportunities. In doing so they gain confidence, self-esteem, retail skills and improve mental and physical health. 

Our Values

“Sports Traider Charity will provide or assist in the provision of facilities in the interests of social welfare for recreation or other leisure time occupation of children and adults who have need of such facilities by reason of disability, financial hardship and/or social circumstances with the object of improving their conditions of life.`

Success

We strive to achieve success for individuals, groups and the community and celebrate when we achieve it.

Participation

We encourage the active participation of beneficiaries and community in the work of the organisation.

Respect

We respect all beneficiaries, ensuring everyone feels welcome and able to participate.

Listening

We seek out, listen and act upon the beneficiaries’ hopes, concerns and aspirations

Diversity

We celebrate the diversity of our beneficiaries and work for everyone to have equal access to our provision..

Valuing our people

We value our volunteers and staff ensuring they are given support and opportunities for development; and their contributions are recognised and rewarded.

Where our money goes

Sponsors

Events

Fundrasing

Volunteers

Battle of the Balls

About Us

Our History

Sports Traider

Charity

Sports Traider Charity has been very successful in including ex-offenders, engaging them in both the retail and community projects, where, together with contributing their volunteering hours, they can discuss and talk about prison life, social disadvantage, alcohol and drug misuse and abuse. The peer support that they get is proving, in many cases, to be very beneficial to their rehabilitation process.

About Us

Our Roots & Lance Haggith

The idea for the charity came from founder Lance Haggith, who after many years of playing, coaching and generally being involved in basketball, saw the potential benefits to disadvantaged children those with disabilities, and young offenders.

After facilitating some research, he discovered that the access to sport for many young persons was out of reach due to their disability, disadvantage and/or social background, etc.

The research concluded that there was a tangible benefit in enabling people to access sports, with a dual purpose, firstly to allow them to become active and secondly to help improve their self-confidence, self-esteem and social skills, which cannot always be achieved in a classroom environment and which will help them gain vocational skills transferable to a workplace environment.

A Local Approach

Sports Traider Charity has retail outlets located in areas in, or close by to, neighbourhoods that, according to the Government Office for National Statistics, are high on the list of those suffering from high levels of deprivation as compared to others in England.

This is a deliberate strategy in accordance with charitable objects ‘…to provide or assist in the provision of facilities in the interests of social welfare’, to target service delivery at those most in need of support.’